


Bright Light & Second Chances

by That_Obsessed_Fangirl



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chara Is Not Evil, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Flowey is your friend, Fluff and Angst, Gender-Neutral Chara (Undertale), Ghost Chara (Undertale), Hurt/Comfort, Hyperventilating, Lots of Crying, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reader Can't Reset, Reader Is Not Chara (Undertale), Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader can't follow their own advice, Slow Burn, Suicidal Reader, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Undertale Pacifist Route, Undertale Spoilers, bc we all love that sweet sappy stuff, chara is good, depressed reader, how is that not a tag?, that's not a tag?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:14:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 46,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27444694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_Obsessed_Fangirl/pseuds/That_Obsessed_Fangirl
Summary: (TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THOSE WITH DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, AND ANYTHING IN RELATION TO THIS TOPIC. Please know that if you do choose to read, and you have seen the tags, it is at your own risk.)You've had enough.You've had enough of wasting people's time, of tainting the very ground you walked upon, of feeling as if you were worth everything you'd been given. You weren't worth that. You weren't worth anything. You did not deserve all the good things you had in your life. You were a disgusting and vile person.In whose eyes could your existence continue to be justified?But just when you had entered that dark tunnel and embraced its darker exit, a bright tunnel had forced you into its grasp.(Updates every 2 weeks)
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Asgore Dreemurr/Toriel, Mettaton/Papyrus (Undertale), Sans (Undertale)/Reader, Sans/Reader
Comments: 84
Kudos: 186





	1. Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Would That Make You Happy?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5053684) by [OnaDacora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnaDacora/pseuds/OnaDacora). 



> Hey guys! I've been reading a ton of Sans/Reader fanfics during lockdown, and I will shamelessly state that I have become completely absorbed in each and every one of them. However, a majority of them had elements or endings that I wasn't completely happy or satisfied with, so I wanted to write my own. Kind of like Toby Fox's mindset of making a game he would love to play, I wanted to make a Sans/Reader fanfic I would feel satisfied ending.
> 
> This is going to be a long story, alright? It's going to take place going through the Underground, just a bit slower and with different events. I take lots of my inspo from those types of stories that have the reader staying in the Underground for a bit like the above work that inspired me (props to you OnaDacora) so please don't be surprised if you see hints of that and other fics in here.
> 
> REMEMBER! I have placed a TRIGGER WARNING in the description. Please do not say that I have not warned you. This story goes through some dark themes, and it would be pointless putting trigger warning in each chapter when almost all the chapters go down the same thought process. If some of these things really get to you, I completely understand if you decide not to read this anymore.
> 
> For those still here, I hope you enjoy this!

You stared into that chasm before you, the swallowing darkness that appeared never-ending. You couldn’t imagine how far the drop would be. If there even was an end.

Would someone care if you died?

_“You’re so stupid!”_

_“Use your head.”_

_“You can’t do a single thing right.”_

Would anyone care?

_“You’re useless.”_

_“Do it again.”_

_“Get it done, now.”_

Would you… even be remembered?

_“I’m so... disappointed.”_

No. That was the answer to all your questions as those last words reverberated in your brain. After all, you weren’t worth anything. You were stupid, always made mistakes, can’t even do a simple thing right. You didn’t deserve to be remembered. You didn't deserve to be cared for. Everything turns out wrong, wrong, wrong, and it was all your fault. You were a horrible person.

And horrible people don’t deserve to live.

You gazed again into the pitch blackness. At first, it was intimidating, daunting. You even considered backing away for a moment in your instinctual fear of heights. But now the large hole was welcoming. You’d always welcomed darkness before the light, anyhow. “Only you have welcomed me like this.”

A smile on your face, you spread your arms, the cold night wind finding its way through your armholes and grazing itself against the small bumps and dips of lines on your forearms and wrists.

This was peace.

And with a simple jump, you embraced it.

|||

You woke with a thrumming in your head and numbness in your arms. You were sure the fall should’ve killed you, so that should’ve meant that you were dead. But you doubted that death or whatever afterlife that existed would keep you in the pain of your death for longer than a few seconds.

You blinked your eyes open and sprung yourself up into a kneeling position, finding yourself on a peculiar patch of golden flowers that you could only guess had broken your fall. You had no idea how these flowers managed to save a person from falling several hundred feet below the ground with nothing but a slight ache on said person’s body, but you found yourself despising these flowers. You were so sure of your death, and you were just about to reach it. Yet this pile of flowers was what got in your way.

“Why? Why would you do this?” You raised a fist above one of the flowers ready to strike, and you were vowing that this flowerbed would be in ruins by the time that you were done with it. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to say that you turned on your own word as swiftly as you had made it as tears rapidly cascaded down your face.

Just what type of mess were you? Were you that bad at everything that you couldn’t even successfully die? What was wrong with you?

You had no idea how long you knelt there crying for. Your hands constantly moved back and forth between your face, covering your eyelids and bringing yourself back to that darkness, screaming and wailing at the utter failure you were. Hyperventilating became common, but you could care less at the thought of how many times you’d have to do this before you could actually die.

“Oh, you poor child.”

You snapped your head towards the voice in front of you and could hardly believe your eyes. Standing in front of you was an anthropomorphic white furry goat lady in a long purple and white dress with small horns on her head whose voice had a lovely motherly tone. You had no idea if what you were seeing was real or not, but nevertheless, you didn’t want to be around anyone at the moment. This goat lady being as tall as she was didn't help with the intimidation of having another living being around.

“P-Please stay away,” you shakily pleaded as you tried to back away. You tried to get your legs to do their job and lift you up, but they shook the moment you placed any weight on them, sending you back to the ground. Feeling helpless, you whimpered as you kept shifting back with your arms.

But this goat lady kept approaching you, her hands laid out flat before you. “I do not intend to harm you, my child.” She maintained a safe distance as she knelt down before you keeping you at equal height. “My name is Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I return here frequently should a human ever fall down into my home so I can care for them. It has been many years since a human has fallen down.” Hearing her words, you were unsure as to what to do. Any faith you had in mankind had been long gone and the seeds of distrust had lain in you ever since. It’s for that reason that you were finding it hard trusting that this Toriel would not hurt you or harm you by any means despite what she claims. But that was just a side note.

You didn’t mean this at all in a rude way, but… what _is_ she? Does she really exist? Or is this some strong hallucination or figment of imagination?

“You may take your time, my child. It must be a lot to take in after your fall.”

Thinking back to the fact that you did indeed fall, you craned your head above you and found yourself shocked. Somehow, the hole above you was not a hole, but a ceiling covered with rocky and icy shards that threatened to fall on you at any second. That’s what you believed, at least.

You took a deep inhale as you moved further back until you hit a pillar out of range of the stalactites. Toriel, after realising the latest reason for your hurried escape, smiled sweetly at your behaviour as she stretched out a hand (paw?) for you to take. “Come along, my child. Perhaps if we moved to a safer room, you would feel at ease, would you not?”

Her words were still difficult to trust. Would she really take you to a safer room? Or would she use this chance to just kill you if she wished? Then your mind laughed hysterically at that thought. Given a second chance at life and you’re still thinking about trying to live? Yeah, right. You supposed that either way, the outcome would turn out well for you, so you took Toriel’s hand in your own as she helped you up.

She was gentle with you as she walked you down the corridor she came from and even shortened her stride so that you could keep up with her. “Should you have any questions, my child, do not be afraid to ask me. I am certain I am capable of answering as many of your questions as possible.”

For some reason, the first question you asked was, “Why do you call me a child?” You knew you weren’t anywhere near as short as a child and were a decent five foot four adult, so you were mildly confused by Toriel’s endearment.

Nervously, Toriel chuckled, her free paw coming to her snout as she did so. “Forgive me, but I cannot help but call you a child. I have lived for many years and the previous humans that fell down were all children. I suppose that it has only become a habit after such a long time, although I am well aware that you are an adult. Would you prefer me to call you by your real name?”

You thought about it for a few seconds before giving Toriel a shrug. “Either one is fine with me.” Despite only knowing Toriel for a few minutes, she was the embodiment of the motherly figure you wish you had.

Then you realised that she didn’t even know your name.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry, I didn’t even tell you my name,” you rushed out. Feeling it to be customary, both of you stopped after climbing a set of stairs and you let go of Toriel’s hand and extended it for a handshake. “My name is _____. I’m sorry for not telling you sooner.”

Toriel let out a light chuckle as she took your hand in hers once more and shook it. “No harm has been done. But I understand that you were not in the best position to be making such formal introductions.”

She let go of your hand and made a nod towards the archway in front of you as a gesture to continue following her, and you silently thanked Toriel for seeing that you could walk by yourself, albeit quite shyly with a small case of the sniffles. However, you had to verbally thank her for something else. “Th-Thank you for not questioning how you found me. I don’t think I would’ve been ready to explain anything, and I still don’t think I am now. And thank you for taking me in. I’m not sure how many people would do that for a stranger.”

“You need not thank me, my child,” came the immediate response. “It has been quite some time since I have had company asides from the Froggits and Whimsuns who reside in the Ruins. And I am sure that any other human in your predicament would have been just as scared and confused to suddenly fall into the Underground. However, I hope I may prove to you how lovely the Ruins are and ensure that you are comfortable.”

The kindness of this goat woman threatened to make you cry once more. She had treated you more kindly and been more generous than most other humans you knew without wanting anything in return. She saw you, a total stranger messy and crying in the middle of a patch of flowers, and decided to take you into her home without question, even though her guess as to why you were crying wasn’t quite correct. Your doubts of her kindness easily faded away as you ventured across various rooms with large puzzles, each dangerous enough to end your life should another wish death upon you.

But Toriel never forced you to do any of the work. On the contrary, she did all of it herself while insisting you do nothing as she guided you through the puzzles. She could’ve very easily pushed you into the spike field and the several blockades of spikes if she truly wished to kill you. One faceplant into those sharp points and you’d be dead. Yet each and every time, she breezed past each puzzle and was there to hold your hand if you wished as you marched forward, glaring in the way you could imagine mothers did at other creatures that came across your path. She had even used her magic to mend the cracks on your phone you couldn’t bear to leave behind and connect you to the Underground magical signal. You imagine that the creatures that looked like frogs were the Froggits Toriel had mentioned while the shy, fluttering fairy creatures were the Whimsuns. You failed to catch the names of the other creatures, but you were sure that you’d learn them in due time.

At last, the both of you had rounded a corner to reveal a leafless tree with red leaves on the ground, and beyond that, the sweet yellows of a welcoming home.

The two of you walked around the tree and made your way to the front door. “Welcome to your new home,” Toriel announced as she let you take it all in. “It may be a bit small, but it is quite cozy.” She took the knob of the door but hesitated for a sudden moment. “Forgive me, my child, but if you will excuse me, I must tidy up the house a small bit. I must admit that for an old goat keeping a daily watch for humans, it was quite irresponsible for me not to tidy the house for guests. Would you mind giving me a few moments?”

You shook your head. “Not at all. Take all the time you need.”

“Wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Now, please stay here until I return. I should not be very long.” With those words, she entered the house and closed the door behind her.

You were grateful for some time alone, finally giving a deep exhale as your mind began cooling down the rest of your body. Entering a completely new world filled with incredible and caring creatures after a failed suicide attempt was already a tough one to process. Adding unplanned social interaction to that list made it all the more exhausting. Thankfully, you were given a breather, so you would use that to your advantage.

From your peripheral vision, you watched as something yellow quite literally emerged from the ground. Turning to gaze at it in curiosity and mild fear, you were surprised to see a yellow flower with a small face. “Wow. You’re new.”

 _So much for some time to myself,_ you thought. But you shook that off as you took another deep inhale. “Yeah. I just fell down here not long ago.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was enough. No one needed to know why you were near that hole in Mt. Ebott.

All the flower did in response was hum before giving what seemed to be a far-too-friendly smile. “Now, where are my manners? Silly me. I’m Flowey. Flowey the flower.”

You were about to extend a hand to shake, but looking down at the flower creature, you swung your hand back to your side. “_____. I, uh, haven’t seen you around in the Ruins while Toriel and I were coming through.”

“That’s because I wasn’t in the Ruins,” Flowey explained. “I can go wherever I want in the Underground easily. Just a pop down into the soil and…” He plopped down through the dirt before swiftly reappearing on the other side of the room. “Voila.”

For lack of knowing what to do, you clapped. “It must come in handy when you need to travel somewhere really far. It’s really cool.”

Flowey huffed as he returned to his previous spot in front of you. You weren’t sure if it was your stinging vision from when you were crying or you were genuinely seeing what you were seeing because a small tint of pink had made its way onto Flowey’s face. He tried to disregard it, however, as he grumbled, “Not like I need you to care.”

That was not something you liked to hear. Empathetic, you crouched down. “Hey, there’s no need to shut people out. I know that it can be hard to accept others and be around people, but having a person or two to talk to is alright, good even.”

The blush on Flowey’s face grew, but his scowl was never wiped off. “Wh-who says that I don’t have people to talk to? Or that I have problems? I’m fine! And I talk to people every day! I’m not… lonely.”

Flowey may have tried to act tough, but you could see through him too easily. His blush began to fade as his scowl morphed into a frown, and you sat yourself down on the ground to be closer to him. “If you have people to talk to, then why aren’t you talking to them instead of me?”

He searched for a response, but after a few seconds of what seemed to be nothing, all he did was hang his head. I- They… No one will understand. No one. Especially not you.” He spat out that last part, and you couldn’t help but be a bit hurt.

It didn’t hurt for long, though, and you easily brushed it off. “Maybe I won’t understand. And I most likely never will. I’ve only been down here for an hour and I don’t even know how to explain what I’m seeing is real. But…” Here, you made sure to be careful of your words. You didn’t want to accidentally hurt anyone. “Whether you decide to help me understand or not, I would be more than willing to listen to anything you have to say. Talking about whatever you’re carrying whether it’s to another person or just yourself can help ease that burden.”

In an instant, Flowey’s head snapped up, his scowl returned to his face. “Stop, just stop! I don't need you or your cute little therapy sessions just because you think you can fix me. I don't need fixing!” He sighed at the physical exertion of yelling.

He was hurting.

His face turned dismissive as he turned around, the back of his stem visible to you. “Just leave me alone. I don’t need your help.”

You knew that wasn’t true.

You slowly moved your hand towards the back of his petals and began stroking them softly. You expected the snap to your fingers that he made next, so you pulled your hand back in time.

“I said STOP!” White pellet-like object surrounded you threateningly, yet you moved your hand forward again. “I DON'T NEED YOU!” The pellets kept closing in on you, but you refused to give up. You refused to let Flowey’s defence fool you. “I don’t…” Your hand met his petals again. “...need…” You pat his petals. “...anyone.”

The pellets vanished, and it didn’t take long before a small sob could be heard from behind the petals protecting his face. Both of you stayed like that before he stopped and the room returned to silence. At some points, you wondered if you had overstepped any lines or if you should start up a new conversation. That’s when Flowey took initiative, his head still drooped. “It sounds like you’re already carrying too much.” Your eyes widened. Was there a way that he could tell? “How do I know that you won’t crash down and break once I give you that extra weight?”

You gave him a small smile. “I’m a little stronger than you think, Flowey. And carrying other people’s burdens can sometimes be lighter than your own.”

Flowey seemed lost in thought as if contemplating a response. But before he could give any, Toriel had returned to the front door. “The house is ready now. Please, do come in.”

You flitted your head around to Toriel and gave her a wide smile. “Just a moment, Toriel.” You stood up briskly and brushed your pants free of the dirt. “Flowey?” you began as the flower turned towards your voice. “Did you want to come in?”

Toriel appeared wary of Flowey, and at first, you were sure that it was because he must have been just as threatening to you as he was to others and the previous humans. But then you realised that she’s been this way with the other creatures you’ve encountered so far, so you began to think little of it.

Flowey turned the thought over. “Maybe… Maybe not today.”

To let him know that you understood his decision, you gave him a reassuring smile. “Take your time. I’m sure that if you wanted to come with, Toriel would allow you anytime.”

From behind you, Toriel flitted her brown eyes sceptically between Flowey and yourself multiple times. She finally said, with some reluctance, “So long as he means no harm to you, then he shall always be welcome.” Her tone turned warmer as she placed her full attention on you, her smile more fond. “I am sure that you would love the company of more than a simple old lady.”

“But you’ve been amazing, Toriel,” you protested instantly. “I’m sure you’d be excellent company.” The kindness that she treated you with was beyond any that most humans would ever extend to anyone, there was no denying that.

Despite this comment, she waved it off. “Nonsense. Loneliness can get to a person, so I cannot imagine how awkward I would be with a sole person as company. Perhaps you gaining a friend will do us both good in the long-term.”

Seeing as she wasn’t going to back down on her stance, you smiled at her and slowly patted her arm. “If you say so.” You turned back to Flowey who had been waiting patiently in the same spot on the ground, glanced at the time on your phone before asking, “Same time tomorrow?”

Flowey smiled at the invitation. And you were sure that it was genuine this time. “Sure. Same time.” Without further notice, the flower plopped through the ground and left no trace that he had ever been present.

Toriel hummed at the area where Flowey had just been, a contemplative gaze on her face before she made a motion to the door. “I believe it is about time that you came inside. And I have even managed a surprise for you! I do hope you enjoy it.”

The excited and curious glint in your eyes could not go unnoticed at the thought of a surprise. But at the same time, you hoped that she hadn’t gone through too much trouble.

“It’s hard to say no to a surprise,” you stated as you followed Toriel into her home, a sweet scent wafting from the kitchen.

You weren’t worth the effort.


	2. Warmth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was so great to see such a positive response to the first chapter! Especially not long after I'd published it. I never realised that I'd made a bit of a tsundere Flowey, but I guess that's what we got XD
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this second chapter! You'll be meeting the skelly bois soon.

The next few weeks passed in a surprising blur. Sometimes, when you woke up in your bed like in this very instance, you had to contemplate if the past few days had even been real. But every time you began to doubt if you had really fallen down that hole and had just been kidnapped and kept in a children's bedroom, the soothing waft of butterscotch-cinnamon pie from the kitchen would snap you out of your reverie.

You were in the Underground. You were with Toriel. Flowey was your friend and had been by your side for a while. And you were being taught all about the Underground and the monsters residing in them.

Toriel had confided in you her dream of becoming a teacher, so her face couldn't help but reveal some of her disappointment when you told her that you had already completed your primary and secondary schooling. You couldn't handle her crestfallen face, however, so you offered to have her teach you about the Underground. Needless to say, she was ecstatic with the idea yet almost shocked herself with how many aspects of the Underground and monsters that she had to teach. She even had to ask the help of Flowey to teach you parts that she could not, especially about recent events and what occurred beyond the Ruin's doors.

It was after a few visits that Flowey felt comfortable enough staying with you and Toriel. He grumbled at the idea of being kept in a flowerpot of all things "like a common house plant kept for decoration" (his words, not yours), but he eventually surrendered and clambered, roots and all, into the vessel. You placed him in the front yard every now and then to allow him to stretch and be free for some time, but whenever dinnertime rolled around or he'd had enough of roaming the Underground, he would return to the same spot next to the door and hop into his flowerpot. He kept both you and Toriel up to date as to what was happening out in the Underground, Toriel's anxiety about humans and their capture a constant presence in these sorts of updates.

This was a concept that Toriel required Flowey's assistance for. Although she could explain the theories behind the barrier and the history as to why humans were wanted in the Underground (you could still not comprehend that Toriel was the queen even when it did make sense), Flowey had to do more of the scientific explanations about their race, 'monsters.' You were appalled by the naming of their race at first considering that the nature of every creature you have ever met, Flowey being a marginal exception, had been far from monstrous. Only their physical appearance could attribute to that name. However, you grew to understand that before mankind had turned it into a term of slander, 'monster' had been utilised just as normally as 'human' when humans and monsters coexisted peacefully on the surface. 

Then the list of questions extended, and you got the answers to most, if not all of them. You learnt about the difference between the physical, meaty bodies of humans and the magical bodies of monsters, which quickly delved into a long conversation about souls. Flowey needed to do the most explaining on this topic, but even he only had speculations about different topics on souls as well.

On some days when Toriel and Flowey would help you revise on the knowledge they had given you previously, Flowey would snag books from the library in the nearby town, that of which was called Snowdin (and he absolutely detested it for its cold weather), in the hopes that you could also accommodate the information visually. It was easy to tell how good that trick worked when certain phrases from some of the books stuck to your mind like the treats stuck to the webs in the Spider Bake Sale. However, you were certain that it was because some of them had particular emotions or implications attached:

_'While monsters are mostly made of magic, human beings are mostly made of water. Humans, with their physical forms, are far stronger than us.'_

_'Because they are made of magic, monsters' bodies are attuned to their SOUL. If a monster doesn't want to fight, its defences will weaken. And the crueller the intentions of our enemies, the more their attacks will hurt us. Therefore, if a being with a powerful SOUL struck with the desire to kill...'_

_'Love, hope, compassion... This is what people say monster SOULs are made of. But the absolute nature of "SOUL" is unknown. After all, humans have proven that their SOULs don't need these things to exist.'_

You could not describe the anger that coursed through your body when you finally learnt about the War of Humans and Monsters from Flowey, the one topic Toriel hastened to avoid and dissect in as little detail as possible in her history lessons. The flower had given you a book to confirm what he was saying was true, but you believed him when he had recited what he claimed was on the walls of Waterfall, one of the sections of the Underground after he had explained the ability to absorb souls:

_'The humans, afraid of our power, declared war on us. They attacked suddenly, and without mercy. In the end, it could hardly be called a war. United, the humans were too powerful, and us monsters, too weak. Not a single SOUL was taken, and countless monsters were turned to dust...'_

It wasn't hard to tell what happened: the monsters did not want to fight back. As a result, any of their attacks as well as their defence was brought down. They did not wish to harm a single soul, and you could laugh at how literal that statement was now that you knew that souls tangibly existed. The monsters did not mean any harm and wished only to live peacefully on the surface, yet their kindness was returned with slaughter and banishment. And their only solution out of this banishment? To become what humans saw them as by acquiring seven human souls, an act that could only be achieved with the human dead. Human souls weren’t like monster souls where they could form their bodies back with magic once their soul was free from absorption; humans had too much physical squishy stuff to detach from the culmination of themselves absolutely without stopping all bodily functions. Keeping that in mind, with how you never died from the fall down the mountain, you knew that the human had to die from a miraculous accident or by the hands of another person. 

Unfortunately, you don't think your body could handle the anger of this revelation as the emotional exhaustion that came with anger as well as not being used to holding so much of the emotion led to a tearful collapse once you had escaped to your room.

“C’mon, aren’t you going to get up or what?”

You groaned at the green and yellow sweater-wearing ghostly apparition hovering by your beside suspended as if they were kicking back on a couch, their cheeks a little pink despite no sense of temperature. You couldn't forget that they'd also become a constant in your life. “Can’t you wander around by yourself?” you asked, reluctant to leave the warmth of your blanket. It was difficult to do that on most days, anyhow.

They crossed their arms and shook their head, their bob cut brown hair swishing about. “Nope. I can’t be too far away from your soul, remember?”

Their words spoke the truth, and you knew it. You were silently hoping that you could stay in bed some time longer, but you knew that they would pester you until you finally gave in. May as well be now.

Chara’s appearance was sudden, to say the least. You and Flowey had decided a week ago to roam the Ruins, so it was inevitable that you ended up, with how small you realised the Ruins really were, back at the place that you had fallen. Nothing and no one else was back there besides the bed of golden flowers, so you made sure to keep in the back of your mind to tell Toriel that a human hadn’t fallen down that day. It was when both of you were sitting peacefully in the flowers that Chara’s ghost had floated up from the ground to greet you.

According to them, your combined determination managed to wake them from their dead slumber, but they were so weak on their own that they needed to be attached to a soul. Of course, due to Flowey’s lack of soul (that you learnt explained his lack of emotions or strong emotions, but was also a touchy subject), Chara had to choose your soul to inhabit. 

They admitted that if Flowey had a soul, they would’ve chosen him over you since he had more determination in his body than you had in your own soul, one that wasn’t a soul of determination. In fact, to their knowledge, your soul was a soul of kindness. However, being awakened as they were, they were able to attach themselves to a soul with any amount of determination, your soul just passing whatever minimum Chara claimed there to be. So long as they remained determined and had that source of determination to live off, they would continue to exist as a ghost.

One that served to give commentary on nearly every aspect of your life, your emotions included for whatever reason. Direct emotion reading was apparently what came with being a ghost attached to another person's soul.

When Chara had introduced themselves to you, it didn't take you long to realise why the name sounded so familiar. Although the name was not mentioned in any of the history books you've been given, Flowey and Toriel had informed you of the first fallen human, Chara, and their story with the royal family and their death. Again, Flowey did more of the explaining, but more so because he had a less emotional response to the story than the adoptive mother of said child.

For some reason, only you and Flowey were capable of seeing and hearing Chara. You were even more puzzled when you remembered that you'd made a ghost friend by the name of Napstablook, a monster that everyone could see and interact with, and even had their own attacks. However, Chara was quick to explain that Napstablook was a ghost monster while they were a plain old ghost, one without a soul and a very literal ghost of their old self. It's what allowed them any emotion they had, and the rest came from your own soul. The only attributes that Chara and ghost monsters like Napstablook shared in common were that they floated, could phase through walls, and they couldn't truly be killed by any means. The last thing you could add to that list was that they could interact with anything magical or with a magic trace. Naturally, you only found this out when Flowey threatened them with 'friendliness pellets' and Chara experienced a momentary sting from accidentally touching one of the attacks. 

They themselves couldn't fully understand why no one else could see them, but all of you eventually copped it up to being that you and Flowey were the ones to wake Chara, and by that logic, only the two of you could see them. It sounded like they preferred it that way when they caught sight of Toriel and later mentioned that they didn't want to be seen that way. Chara didn't want Toriel to feel as if she'd be legitimately haunted by her dead child for however long you lived.

"Seriously, get up," the ghost badgered. "It's really easy to get tired of exploring the same dark room over and over again."

As you sat up, you heard a groan from the flowerpot on the bedside table. "At least you can explore. Meanwhile, I can't even move around on my own and have to be carried around like a little hopeless baby!"

Chara cupped their hands together and mockingly asked, "Aw, you want your bottle of milk too?"

Flowey's expression changed to absolutely frustrated and irritated, but Chara kept the same mocking grin and pose on their face. You glanced between the two of them and you couldn't help but feel, like the many times you have this past week, that they had known each other before. The way they bantered and argued was a lot like that of best friends or siblings, and it was for this reason that you began to have speculations that Flowey wasn't always... 'Flowey.' After all, someone who missed and felt hints of past emotions had to have had them before. A person can't miss something they've never had.

"Alright, you two, break it up," you near monotoned. This had become part of your daily life so you couldn't quite take it seriously anymore. "I'm getting up now, so you can stop whining." Chara and Flowey shared a brief glance before turning away from one another, a sour, childish expression on their faces. You could even swear that Chara was puffing their cheeks out. 

You made your way out of the room swiftly, Flowey in his flowerpot in your hands, as Chara phased through the closed door. However, it was more like she was being tugged through it with how fast you were making your way to the kitchen. “Woah, woah, woah, slow down! You didn’t even want to get out of bed and now you’re rushing around the house?”

“One cannot deny food!” you yelled back. “Especially when it’s Toriel’s famous butterscotch-cinnamon pie.”

Despite this desire for food, however, you were slowed and eventually stopped in your tracks at the sight of the stairs that led to the basement. According to Flowey, as Toriel had never told you what was down there, those stairs steered down into a passage that led to the rest of the Underground. It was then that you understood why Toriel had done her best to steer you away from the area. In the beginning, you were perfectly content to remain in Toriel's house and never leave the safety of what had become your home. A true home. But you could feel your curiosity growing as the Ruins felt as if they were shrinking. 

"My child? Are you awake?" You flicked your head to the doorway of the joint dining room and living room just as Toriel had exited the kitchen. "Ah, you are! That is wonderful. I was worried that the pie would turn cold before you would wake up."

During the time that she had talked, you couldn't fathom a coherent sentence in your mind as a response. You hoped that Toriel wouldn't be terribly perceptive that morning and simply believed that it was the remaining sleep washing itself away when all you said was, "Uh, yeah, um, sorry. Just got a bit distracted."

You should've tried to hide what you were thinking about more by not staring at the one thing you were thinking about, but of course, you were a vulnerable human being who wore their heart and mind on their sleeves. Just thinking about sleeves now made you clench your fists around the edges of your sweater. You had to be conscious of your scars when you had a protective goat mom constantly on your non-existent tail.

With all those things in mind, it was no question that Toriel would pick up that something was more than just distracting you. And as her face grew sombre, you knew that she had picked it apart in her head. "...I see. Do you..." She fiddled with her paws nervously. "Do you not like it here, my child?" You should've guessed that she would assume something like this, but it still had you shocked to hear the words out loud. "I had hoped that I was able to make you feel happy living here, yet it seems that I must have missed something."

"No, no, no!" you denied. "It's nothing like that, Toriel. I've actually loved living here with you and Flowey over the past few weeks than I ever have on the surface. I wouldn't have wanted anything to change about that."

"Then what has you staring at the basement stairs?" Toriel now had her hands tucked together in her robe, and from the small movements you could see from her arms, you knew that she was trying to hide her shaking hands.

Instinctively, you hugged Flowey's flowerpot closer to your chest. "After hearing more about the Underground, I've wanted to see it for myself. And before you say it, I know that it'll be more dangerous than the Ruins. After all, you've been here to protect me and Flowey has sometimes, too. But Flowey will still be here with me and I'm grown enough to know that it won't be so easy out there."

The goat monster appeared just as lost for words as you were a minute prior. But she was eventually able to string together a set of words. "I understand, my child. There is no need to hide you away from a cruel world with which you already know." She glanced around her home, a sad smile on her face. "The Ruins do get small once you get used to them. Perhaps it is not for everyone to be stuck in such a small place for the rest of their lives." This time, Toriel faced you directly, the same smile on her snout. "Please stay for one last slice of pie. After that, I shall assist you in packing some items before I see you off."

You couldn't stand how forced the smile was becoming, so you placed Flowey down on the floor next to you (with a small yelp of surprise from the said flower) before leaping into her arms. She had just moved them out of the way in time before you wrapped your arms around her middle. Unsurprisingly, your arms couldn't reach all the way around. "Thank you. For understanding and taking care of me."

From the deep intake of air you heard, you sensed a moment of hesitation before Toriel returned the hug and placed a comforting hand on the back of your head. "There is no need to thank me for such things, my child. I was happy to care and provide for you. I would do it time and time again if need be." You felt an ominous air around that last statement, one that Toriel appeared oblivious to, yet had caught Flowey and Chara's attention with the eye they'd both raised. But you didn't dare point it out if it meant ruining the moment you were sharing with Toriel.

It was only after a few minutes did you both let go, Toriel trying to hold back a few more tears than you. She did not make this known, though, as she declared, "Come along now. You and Flowey sit down at the table. I will go fetch the pie and heat it up." You picked the flower off the floor and did as Toriel said, a million thoughts rushing through your mind at once as Chara floated along silently. 

All these thoughts that flooded your mind made the time of your departure approach fast, yet with each passing second, you wanted to treasure the moment forever. It was one of the few moments in your life where you wished that time had slowed down instead of gone forward, and had the food not been magical and dissolved upon meeting your throat, you would not have been able to stomach the rest of your slice of pie. No matter your desire to sate your curiosity and explore the rest of the Underground, the imminence of leaving loomed above your head the same way it would if you had been preparing to go on a long drive. The feeling intensified as, with Flowey in the backpack you carried on your shoulders as you walked slowly behind Toriel down a shadowy purple basement hallway with Chara trailing behind, you sensed your trip about to begin.

After passing by a stone door, an eerily long hallway and a small patch of grass, Toriel finally stopped at the largest set of doors you had seen in the Ruins. "This is the exit to the Ruins. I hope I have given you enough money to set you off. From there, I am sure that you will find a way to look after yourself."

You grabbed one of Toriel's hands. "Don't be a stranger, okay? You have my phone number, so you can check up on me anytime. Flowey might even update you himself if he feels up to it." You jiggled your backpack around. "Right, Flowey?"

He swayed left to right in a bored manner. "Yeah, yeah, don't worry, I'll update you on her. But don't expect me to do it so often because I do not like being in Snowdin. It's freezing!"

Toriel laughed, at this point used to how Flowey behaved. Then she perked up. "Oh! You just reminded me of something, Flowey. Thank you."

As Toriel grabbed something from her pockets, you could hear Flowey grumble, "I wasn't even trying to help you, stop thanking me." You laughed as well but were stopped in your tracks feeling something warm wrapped around your neck and plopped on your head.

Around your neck was a lovely warm scarf in your favourite colour, and on your head, a cute beanie in the same colour with a small pompom at the top. Looking back at Flowey, you could see that he had been given a small little blue scarf of his own, and he looked mildly perplexed at this but was blushing all the same. In Toriel's paws lay thin but clearly warm mittens that matched your beanie and scarf, and as you took them gently in your hands and placed them on, you couldn't help but let a stray tear fall. "I had a feeling that one day, you would wish to leave the Ruins," Toriel began. "Since you already had such little clothes, I decided to pick up knitting again and made them while you slept. I would not want to send you off knowing you would be shivering your way to Waterfall."

She cared. She cared so much and the ache of her care filling your heart made all your held-back tears spill over the top. It was so much, it was more than you were used to, and you just couldn't stop. Toriel was surprised, to say the least. "My child! Are you alright?" From the corner of your eye, you saw Chara watch the exchange with a look that made you think that they understood.

The tears flowed out even more as you embraced her in a tight hug. "Thank you, th-thank you. You have no idea how m-much this means t-t-to me."

You sobbed ever harder as she returned the hug with the same passion and reassurance that you needed. "Shh, it is alright." She slowly stroked your head as best she could with the beanie on. "None of us wants you leaving with a runny nose, now. I cannot imagine just how sick you would become."

Despite her words, your tears continued to fall as you gushed out all the gratitude and thanks you could possibly give. She ended up trying to heal your runny nose, but it seemed as if the tears would stay. Finally, you were standing at the door ready to push it open. "Be good, will you not?"

You placed a hand on the door as you smiled at the goat monster. "I will. I'll make sure to come and visit you. See you... mom."

Toriel could not hide the glee on her face as she giggled, and you could've sworn that a tear had made its way down her fine white fur. "Farewell, _____."

The two of you shared one last glance before you turned around and pushed open the door to a flurry of blinding white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am NOT sad, I am not. I didn't even plan for this sort of ending to the chapter, what the heck...
> 
> I'll come back and edit this after my philosophy exam, but just thought you guys might want this while I'm doing that.


	3. Tears, Breaths and Bones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realised that it might be easier to have a tumblr for the fic to answer questions and all that rather than leaving comments under other ppl's stuff. I can't really remember if you get a notif when someone replies to you, although I'm hoping that you get notifs from tumblr. Anyway, I've opened one up. It would be great for you guys to leave feedback there if you find it easier or more convenient than leaving comments.
> 
> [ Bright Light & Second Chances Tumblr ](http://bright-light-and-second-chances.tumblr.com/)
> 
> There's the link. Anyway, enjoy! Time to meet the skele-bois. In a really long chapter. That I had to make bc the initial chapter was too short for everything that happened.
> 
> (btw, excuse my sound effects for intense breathing in and out, but I didn't wanna use "huff" or "puff" because I didn't feel like it would capture the essence of what I needed and it was the best way of expressing what it sounded like. I need it to really sound like it if I were to read it. If you want me to change that, then that's all good)

You were beginning to be more grateful for the knitted clothes that Toriel had given you with each step you took in the magical snow. Well, it was either magical or there were holes somewhere in the mountain large enough for snow to reach this far underground. Or perhaps it was a mix of both.

You'd never know.

"Stupid s-s-scarf!" Flowey retorted. "It doesn't do anything. It barely even c-covers me!"

Chara floated along leisurely, their arms still crossed as they shook their head disapprovingly. "And to think you were actually grateful for that gift." They let out a little _phft._ "You'd have to be grateful that she thought of you at all, you know."

Flowey stopped in his complaints as he hung his head low again. You recognised this tendency of Flowey after many of what you'd jokingly called his "therapy sessions." It often meant that he was either reminiscing a memory, trying to hide whatever emotion he was managing to somewhat feel or remember, or he was just feeling remorseful or guilty. Wait a moment... All of those could basically be combined into one reason.

Flowey sighed. "I know. I just... don't want to be reminded of before. I don't want to have all of this and feel like _him_ again. I don't want her _caring_ for me and being so _nice_ to me again."

You craned your neck back at Flowey and gazed at him worriedly. It's stuff like this, when he gave himself away, that continued to raise your suspicions that he was someone else before. But out of everything that he's accidentally let out, this bit of information was the one that confirmed it all.

Flowey was someone else before 'Flowey' and had a past as that person, a monster with a soul. He hates associating himself with the same person because of something more than the lack of emotions that makes him possibly disgusted at himself. He had ties with Toriel as that person and seemed quite acquainted with Chara when they first met; you noticed how fondly he had called their name when they floated up from the ground. You don't think monsters could survive without their soul with how closely tied they were to it, so something must've happened in between that turned him into Flowey and caused him to no longer have his soul. It's then that a peculiar little essay that Flowey had given you from the library wrung in your mind:

_"When monsters get old and kick the bucket, they turn into dust. At funerals, we take that dust and spread it on that person’s favourite thing. Then their essence will live on in that thing..."_

The dust, and therefore, the essence of Flowey's past self was spread on or grew in a golden flower. A golden... flower...

_"Wounded, Asriel stumbled home. He entered the castle and collapsed. His dust spread across the garden."_

That child was the child of Asgore, the monster king, and Toriel. The second child that the royal family lost. The one child that unknowingly brought the seeds of the Underground's famous golden flowers back with the body of their dead sibling as they died. No way. No way...

"You're Asriel."

It was more of a statement than a question, and this caught the attention of both Chara and Flowey. "W-what?" Flowey sounded so shaken and broken in that one word that you almost couldn't bring yourself to ask again.

Almost.

"You're Asriel," you repeated. "Or at least you used to be. You were the same child that you told me stories of when telling me the history of the Underground. You were the prince of the Underground."

The flower in question was speechless. "I- I- You-" He spent a little more time stuttering before sighing in defeat. "Yes, that's who I was. How'd you figure it out?"

A large branch was ahead which gave you an excuse to take your time while you talked. "You let out little details that you probably don't notice. It only took a combination of that and Underground Education 101 to put everything together." You flicked your eyes back to Chara. "It must be part of why you guys banter like siblings."

A nod.

With a bit of confusion, you asked, "Did you already know?"

"He told me the first night when you went to sleep," they hastily replied. "I'm the only connection to his past life that he'd like keeping around or 'tolerating.'"

Staring back at the flower in your bag, it was difficult to describe the way Flowey's expression rapidly changed sifting through this realisation. It appeared to have transitioned from shock to anger (seemingly directed at himself) and all the way back to his defeated self. "Just... don't look at me and expect to see that kid that you've heard about. And never call me by that name. That's not me. And I never will be without a soul." It's with those words that Flowey fell silent again.

The atmosphere had turned solemn, the emptiness of your snowy surroundings making you feel small in comparison to the towering trees. Chara had been acting a little odd, too quiet once again and flitting their head back and forth between the trees. "Don't talk to me. Pretend I'm not even here. Someone else is here, I can feel it."

You were about to respond to that demand, but you stopped yourself before you could contradict those instructions. Instead, you hummed as you kept pressing forward. If you were going to act natural, as much of an oxymoron that statement was, you may as well act and make yourself believe it.

You contemplated how you were going to proceed with things from here. Does every monster know what a human looks like? Some of the monsters in the Ruins didn't even know you were a human until they were told. Despite the fact that you'd be entering those fights that Toriel had warned you about, you hoped that everything remained peaceful enough for you to settle down and rest for a few days. You might even consider picking up a job to get some more gold--

_Snap!_

You whipped your head behind you to find no one there. For a moment, you were trying to pick up what had changed and who could possibly be there, but you finally noticed the large branch in the middle of the path snapped into three pieces.

The really large branch. That you probably couldn't pick up. And it was snapped like it was nothing. And the monster that did it vanished within a second of doing it. 

Flowey suddenly became alert. "Oh, no. I've felt this magic and atmosphere before." He swiftly whispered to you, _"Run!"_ And you didn't dare question that.

You sprinted your way towards a wooden structure in the distance, yet every step you took made it feel so much farther away. It was easy to tell that it was meant to be a bridge, although the contraption surrounding it looked as if it was meant to keep something from passing. Luckily, it seemed far taller than yourself, and beyond that, there was a little wooden station. That was just what you needed. Perhaps whoever was following you wouldn't think to check the structure.

Alright, who were you kidding?

You skidded to a stop right in front of the bridge. 

"What?! Why are you stopping? Just keep going! Nothing's stopping you!" Flowey sounded truly scared, and this was making you second guess your second-guessing.

It didn't stop you from telling him what you were second-guessing about in the first place. "If this monster is so fast, why do I bother running from them?"

"Because you're scared, that's why!"

"I'm scared by default because you're scared!"

"And what, that broken branch back there means nothing?!"

"I mean, of course it means something--"

"Then run!"

You no longer had that time to decide as the crunch of footsteps on the snow behind you grew closer, your feet rooted firmly to the ground. In your backpack, Flowey was shaking, and you knew that it was no longer from the cold he was complaining about earlier. But with how intensely he must've been shaking for you to feel his shivers made you remember a time when you were in that same position.

_You heard a sudden loud clattering from the kitchen as you washed your hands after going to the bathroom. For a moment, you thought that some of the dishes that you had washed topped over from their temporary drying positions. But then you remembered that you hadn't positioned any of them so dangerously that any of them may have toppled over. And it was night time. Everyone else was sleeping. Then that could only mean..._

_"_____!"_

_The ferocity with which she yelled your name made you rush out of the bathroom post haste. When did she get back from her late-night shopping? But you couldn't think about that now - all that mattered was getting to her, and getting there fast. Even with your wide eyes and trembling body, you didn't dare make her wait._

_You stood at the ready at the front of the kitchen, arms poised in front of you as you made sure to maintain eye contact. Not doing so would raise her anger by a slight bit, but you couldn't afford that._

_Your mum stood livid by the kitchen sink, so you made sure to quickly maneuver yourself to stand around a metre distance away. "What the heck is this?" You tried answering but she interrupted. "I already told you that I don't like seeing dishes in the sink!"_

_You summoned the best calm, neutral voice that you could muster. "I finished all of them just then but I needed to go to the toilet first."_

_"Don't give me excuses," she spat back. "You should've done them straight away, but instead, you waited! Just kept staring at your phone while I wasn't around and doing nothing productive. This sink should've been clear ages ago!" Yet you had hardly touched your phone. You had been focused on getting the last parts of your homework done while you were in the working zone and touching up your resumé one last time before sending them off to multiple employers. Only after that did you get up and wash the dishes, making sure to scrub at the rather oily ones thoroughly and swiping your fingers across its surface to check for any remaining oil._

_But she was always made assumptions like this without hearing you out. Unfortunately, you were never able to defend yourself without it being written off as another excuse on top of the others. And if you tried despite those things, she'd get angrier. So, in your eyes, a person who could hardly muster any anger against her or in general and became mute whenever she became angry, it was better to stay quiet than try to justify yourself to a person who would never listen to you._

_You didn't know what else to say, so without any demand, you just began drying the dishes with a clean cloth. From your peripheral vision, you noticed your mother grab something from the front of the sink. Before you could process the panic going through your head, you felt something wet, soapy and soft hit the back of your head. "Don't just do it now! Help me with the shopping first. Next time, you should do your job properly."_

_Maybe it was your fault. You should've done the dishes first. You knew that she would've been angry if she got home to a full sink, washed or not, but you never prioritised it. Instead, you did the homework that you could've done later. Maybe she would've come home calmer, maybe even a bit happy._

_You made quick work of drying the dishes once she was gone, your held-back tears streaming down your face as you worked in sniffles. All you could think about was the repeated mantra in your head. 'It's my fault, it's all my fault, I got myself into this situation, you're so stupid, goddamn it. Why can't I learn from my past mistakes?'_

_You made sure to get the knives out of the way first before you did anything you'd regret._

_You knew things would go farther than the scars you made on your wrist if you didn't._

"It's all my fault, it's all my fault, I'm so stupid, why did I do it, I'm so sorry."

"hey, uh, buddy? i never said that anything was your fault. you don't have to apologise for anything."

A deep baritone voice from behind you brought you back into the real world, and it caused you to assess your situation. Since when did you start crouching in the snow? Since when did you have your arms wrapped around yourself? Since when did you start crying and speaking to yourself? And most importantly, since when did you start having panic attacks out of nowhere and in public? Flowey had extended his stem around to your face with a concerned expression, Chara hovering at the same distance to your face bearing the same expression of worry. You could just make out a stray tear that had fallen down their ghostly face. God, were they feeling the emotions you were feeling? No, no, no, don't let them feel those! They don't need to. They shouldn't have to.

"um, if this is about the prank i pulled just now, then i'm really sorry. i didn't mean anything by it but just some harmless fun. i can tell when a prank has gone a step too far and hurt someone, though."

"N-no, i-i-it's not that," you stutter out in between the cold, your intense crying, and your regained sniffles. Feeling as if it was rude to have your back face a person that was talking to you, you tried to shuffle to the side but left your eyes downcast. "Y-you didn't do anything w-wrong, I-I-I, I j-j-just- _hah-ha hoo-ha hoo--_ _"_

Of all things that you didn't need right now and didn't need to do in front of others, you began hyperventilating.

You should've honestly expected this when one or more people were reaching out and showing genuine care for your well-being, even if one of those people was an absolute stranger. Every time anyone reached out when they caught you crying (which was seldom if you were honest; you got rather good at keeping it all in your room), you would start hyperventilating out of nowhere, causing it to be nearly impossible to explain a thing. Any further words would make it worse.

"I'm- _hah-_ I- _ha hoo-ha hoo-_ you- _hah_ -di-didn't- _hah--"_ You tried to get words out, but you couldn't, and it just made things worse. This guy was expecting an explanation, all three of them were! You just needed to get the words out. But it was so _hard._ " _Ha hoo-hah-hah-hah-ha hoo-ha hoo--"_

"it's alright, buddy, it's alright," the monster reassured. "you don't have to say anythin' right now if you can't. just give yourself some time and take some deep breaths." You could feel the presence of this person slowly crouch down next to you and press a hesitant comforting hand on your shoulder. From behind you, a small hiss from your flower friend could be heard, yet you never felt, saw nor heard any other threats from your six petal companion. As the abnormally ridged hand rubbed up and down your shoulder that you found weirdly comforting, you began doing your best to follow his advice by taking a deeper breath each time you inhaled and releasing it slowly. "that's it, there you go. one step at a time, don't rush it. in and out."

Hearing the vocal command helped you organise your thoughts, focusing your mind on that sole objective as your slow, trembling breaths became softer. Naturally, it took a number of minutes for both the crying and hysterical breathing to cease, but by the time that you were just deeply inhaling and trying to work past the sniffles, you were feeling a lot better.

“oh, um." He patted your shoulder softly. "hey, human. just gonna give you a heads up, but my brother is approaching right now. he’s a little loud, but i can tell that you don’t need that right now, especially since he kinda wants to capture a human and make you go through a lot of puzzles.” He _what_ now? “but hey, there’s no need to worry. my bro would never mean you any real harm. in fact, he may be able to cheer you up. you think you’re up for that?” 

Still making sure that your breaths had completely slowed down and that you didn’t go into another panic attack, all you did was nod. “that’s good, that’s a good step. now, i’m gonna go over there and talk to him, let him know some stuff before he meets you. uh…” He must’ve finally taken notice of Flowey, who was softly perched on top of your ear for whatever reason, because the monster said, “hey, flower. you look after her for a bit, alright?” For some reason, he said this in a way that made it sound like that deep down, he didn't trust Flowey nor trusted him to keep you safe.

You heard a huff. "As if I need you telling me what I should do, _smiley trashbag_. I would've done it without you saying anything."

Chara shook their head in the background. All the while, you just giggled - their antics really do help cheer someone up. It was almost like watching a sitcom. "What are we going to do with you?" Despite making fun of Flowey, Chara swung over to the top of your head and perched their head on top of it to hide the smile you knew was all over their face.

"heh," the monster said in response to Flowey's remark. "whatever you say, _weed._ "

There was definitely some sort of hostility between the two. However, it sounded like this monster only had a sense of distrust for Flowey while the flower in question had a clear hatred for the monster. Just when you think you had Flowey figured out, something else was added to the mystery. You wondered out of curiosity if he would ever open up to you about some of the other stuff you know he's been hiding. 

"alright, bucko. i'll be heading up." And with those words, the monster made his way over and across the bridge.

Finally back to regular, steady breathing, you removed your legs from your foetal position and forced yourself to stand up. As much as you had begun to have no care for the wetness of your lower half, you wouldn't want to add it to the additional cold you knew you'd be catching within a few minutes. In fact, you'd rather remain as dry as possible if you were going to be traversing in more of Snowdin's snow. 

Flowey extended his stem over to hover in front of your face once more. "You gonna be alright?" It was much easier to see the concerned little goat boy within him reaching out from this soulless husk. There was a certain tenderness to it.

"I'll be fine," you brushed off with an aiding gesture as you began taking slow steps. "I'm more concerned about what this monster is saying to his brother who seemingly wants to capture humans." Yes, you had agreed to accept the monster and his brother's help, yet you also knew that you shouldn't place your full trust into a person who may want to capture you, no matter what his brother says. You would rather take the time to judge this person yourself than rely on the word of another person entirely.

Flowey scoffed. "You'll be fine. Even though I hate that smiley trashbag, he won't mean you any harm if he doesn't see a good reason. And I know his brother. Even if he tried to fight you, he's a softy, you'll see."

"Aw," Chara cooed. "You're actually being nice and reassuring for once," they teased.

Flowey was about to make another one of his remarks with his mouth wide open, all geared up to spit out another one of his insults. But, upon noticing that you were all getting closer towards two talking figures (that you could hardly make out with your tear-blurred eyes), he promptly shut his mouth and settled on irritated grumbles instead. 

As you approached, you could hear a loud shrill voice contrasted against the same baritone one that had comforted you. The shorter one was wearing a blue hoodie with black basketball shorts bearing a stripe on both sides, and for whatever reason, pink fluffy house slippers. The taller one had a large red scarf wrapped on top of some sort of white breastplate with... blue briefs? The gloves and boots matched the same red of the scarf, and for some reason, his arms, legs and midriff were covered in black fabric, yet also abnormally thin. Upon closer inspection, almost any idea that you were crying in the first place had left your mind.

Where their eyes should've been, only darkness remained, small white pinpricks present only in the shorter of the two. Their heads had no hair, skin, scales, nor any other outer covering besides pristine whiteness. And the exposed midriff of the taller? And the gaps through the middle of their legs and arms?

"AH, SO YOU SPOKE THE TRUTH, BROTHER. THERE IS INDEED A HUMAN! THEY CERTAINLY DON'T LOOK LIKE ANY MONSTER I'VE MET BEFORE, SO THEY MUST BE A HUMAN!"

"yeah, but remember what we talked about, bro?"

"OH, YES! HUMAN! IT IS CLEAR THAT YOU ARE IN NO FIT STATE TO CARRY ON AS OF NOW. THEREFORE, IT WOULD BE VERY UNFAIR TO TRY TO CAPTURE YOU WHILE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, REMAIN IN TIP-TOP CONDITION. AND I AM VERY FAIR! SO! MY BROTHER AND I WILL ESCORT YOU TO SNOWDIN SO THAT YOU MAY BE WARMLY ACCOMMODATED AND CARED FOR UNTIL YOU ARE IN THE TIPPIEST TOPPIEST OF SHAPES! AND THERE ARE MANY OF THOSE AROUND, SO I AM CERTAIN THAT YOU WILL MAKE AN EXEMPLARY RECOVERY!"

They're... They're...

Next to your head, Flowey exhaled. "_____, meet the skeleton brothers, Sans and Papyrus."

The taller one, Papyrus, dramatically gasped and held his hands to his mouth in excitement. "FLOWEY! IT HAS BEEN QUITE SOME TIME, MY FRIEND! HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING THE HUMAN COMPANY?" This is what Flowey must've meant by 'knowing' the brother of the monster that helped you.

And speaking of said monster, he raised a surprisingly malleable bonebrow at his brother. "you know that dude?"

"BUT OF COURSE, SANS! HE'S THE FLOWER I'VE TALKED TO YOU ABOUT!"

"oh, really?"

"YES! AND NOW YOU CAN FINALLY MEET EACH OTHER. IN PERSON! WOWIE!"

Sans' eye of scepticism became directed to Flowey who looked torn between appearing scared and annoyed. Meanwhile, Papyrus still remained in excitement, a twinkle present in his eyesockets as Chara cackled at the situation in the background.

And you?

You were wondering how you went from crouching in the snow, crying, to being caught in an awkward circumstance between two skeletons and a flower as a ghost and yourself stood as the observers. Because if you could name anything you doubt you would've experienced exiting the Ruins, much less after a failed suicide attempt down a hole in a mountain, this, without any second thought, would be on the top of your list the moment your mind conceived the idea. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you have any idea how much Grammarly tries to correct Sans' speech? It's annoying.
> 
> Also, sorry for such a short chapter! Well, it was about the same length as the others, but I get the feeling that not as much happened in this one. However! With tomorrow being my last day of school for the year, I'll have a lot of time to be dishing out updates until late January (still gotta do holiday homework though, kinda sucks).
> 
> Please be patient when waiting for the next update! I may upload sooner or later than last time. I'll be posting updates on the [ Bright Light & Second Chances Tumblr ](http://bright-light-and-second-chances.tumblr.com/) (in case you guys didn't wanna scroll all the way back up and because I'm really excited abt it) about where I am in terms of writing and other things.
> 
> EDIT: Soz! Put in the wrong link. Hopefully it works now


	4. Puzzle Me This

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not posting the tumblr link properly! Dw, it's there now, PROPERLY linked (I feel like such a boomer). In fact, I'll put it here too.
> 
> [That tumblr I couldn't link properly](http://bright-light-and-second-chances.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Feel free to post feedback and all that jazz in there. I'm still kind of giddy from the comments on the last chapter tbh (kinda giggly) and I'm just really glad that you guys are liking my stuff. Feel free to leave comments and feedback wherever, it really helps me!
> 
> I really liked writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it!

For someone who was seemingly eager to capture you, it was surprising that they would give you a chance to recover and evade them. They had even developed a number of puzzles and "traps" for you to go through as you had discovered along your way. Just to cheer Papyrus up, a monster that was not suited for a frown each time a puzzle was passed, you said you would complete the puzzles no matter how adamant he was that there was no need for it in your weak state. It was the least you could do for him, or rather, the pair of skeleton brothers, for looking after you instead of leaving you to be killed.

Flowey was confused at your decision to go through with the puzzles. "Why would you deliberately make things hard on yourself?" Clearly, he hadn't understood the motive yet. But once he saw your joyful smile at Papyrus' own glee that he would have someone to try his puzzles on, he shook his head. "You're too nice for your own good." Maybe he was right. It's true that you never quite prioritised your own health, safety nor happiness above other people, but in the end, it was they who mattered. In the face of that and your worthlessness, who were you to argue against it?

Those things aside, it didn't take a lot to admit that the puzzles and traps that Papyrus had prepared were unlike anything you had ever seen before. You thought that he'd make you do puzzles akin to those in the Ruins that involved flipping a few levers or switches, puzzles that you could potentially explain with circuits and wiring with a touch of magic added to the places that you could fall down. However, there was no way you could use any of your limited human understanding of the general science subject to explain the first puzzle - the invisible electricity maze.

"I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE... QUITE SHOCKING!" Papyrus commented after explaining the puzzle's mechanics. You couldn't help but chuckle at the obviously placed pun, yet made no effort to point it out. Sans appeared to be on the same page as you with the laughter he couldn't hide behind that permanent smile of his. Meanwhile, Flowey remained indifferent and was the only one to groan.

You realised not long after meeting the skeleton brothers that Sans was a huge pun lover and Papyrus had an extreme dislike for puns. Or, as he put it, "A DISLIKE FOR THE MOST DISLIKED, OVERUSED AND TYPICAL OF PUNS." You saw what he meant rather soon when his most annoyed of groans and protests were the result of puns like "a skele-ton" and "down to the bone" or an _"ice_ to meet you" from a passing Snowdrake. The older skeleton brother (that you were partly surprised at for his short height but less so for his endearment towards his brother) admitted that he was storing his good material for a later time, although Papyrus doubted it. "YOU ONLY SERVE ANY 'GOOD MATERIAL' FOR YOUR SHOWTIMES AT MTT RESORT, AND EVEN THOSE AREN'T FUNNY!"

"aw, c'mon, bro. i made it there, didn't i?"

"YOU ARE LISTED SEPARATELY FROM THE OTHER COMEDIANS ON THE SCHEDULE."

"that's because i've got so many _rib-ticklers_ that i need to have my own act."

"OH MY GOD! YOU'RE HOPELESS!"

Needless to say, it's given you and Chara many occasions to laugh, Flowey reluctantly in some circumstances with more grumbling in others.

In all honesty, when Papyrus ran through the maze and gave away the solution instead of around it to plop the shocking orb onto your head (it would've hurt had you not been wearing your beanie, but that made it really difficult to balance), you thought of three things. One: why didn't he go around the maze instead of going through it which clearly gave you the solution? Two: how did he remember the solution without slowing down or feeling around the walls on accident? And three: despite the previous two things, you're still going to make it appear as if you're struggling for his sake with the hope that he hadn't noticed what he'd done. If there was anything a puzzle shared in common with things like a riddle or an escape room, it's that you wouldn't feel as accomplished if the person trying to figure out said riddle or escape room did it so quickly. It would make it seem as if it was too simple and that you didn't put enough effort into making it. Thinking about it now, you had a feeling that Papyrus would enjoy escape rooms.

Thankfully, there was no need to purposefully shock yourself. Chara was able to feel the magical electrical current around them and direct you to a few dead ends before straying you back to the main path. "Okay, make a direct left. Stop trying to feel around with your arms, seriously. This was built with Papyrus in mind, so as long as you walk in a straight line, you're okay. Slow down a bit, look a bit shaky. Okay, go right a bit. Alright, stop, stop. Shake your head a bit - careful with the orb! - and then follow your footsteps back to Papyrus'. Great! Uh, then follow his footsteps close to the exit, turn right a little unsure, then follow his footsteps to the end again." It reminds you about the blindfold team building game that schools often make the students do, except you aren't blindfolded and your partner is sensing something that doesn't even look like it's there.

You had surprisingly worked up quite the sweat in such cold weather while pretending to be clueless about a task you already knew how to get through. "OH MY! YOU SOLVED IT! IT WAS QUITE THE TRICKY ONE, WASN'T IT? I WANTED TO BE VERY PRECISE TO ENSURE THAT THE PUZZLE WAS NEITHER TOO EASY NOR TOO HARD."

You let yourself catch a breath before you responded. "It was just right, Papyrus. You did a really great job."

The joy on his face was nothing you could put a price tag on. There was even the lightest orange blush present on his cheekbones, though he did his best to hide it with his usual gusto. "AS IS EXPECTED OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS, FUTURE ROYAL GUARDSMAN. WOULD YOU PERHAPS BE IN THE MOOD FOR FURTHER PUZZLES?"

"If it's your puzzles? Absolutely."

"THEN, OFF WE GO!"

The following puzzles that ensued were variations of one that required you to step on glowing x's to change them into o's and a miraculously failed tile puzzle at the end. And along the way, you met quite a few dog monsters that, with very little needed to be done to get close, just wanted to be pet. Fortunately, none of them engaged in a fight with all the monsters protecting you. Unfortunately, you had become nervous for the second half of your puzzle-solving when, after sliding across a wide sheet of ice, you fell over. Since Flowey didn't fancy getting crushed between you and a heapful of ice and snow, he had extended his vines out to the ground and stopped your fall midway through. Things couldn't be any worse when your sleeves rolled down from your flailing scarred arms, and who happened to be on the other side of the ice in an attempt to help you? 

Sans.

Whether he saw them or not, he did a swell job at hiding it. You, on the other hand, were more conscious of your sleeves than ever before. Knowing the magical nature of monsters and their souls, you can't imagine that many would know the implications of several lines across the underside of a person's arms. They had one another as company, and even with their dying hope, all of them weren't afraid of expressing their emotions. Or at least, it was a lot easier to notice. And not to mention that every monster was unique. But although you doubted that most, if not all the monsters didn't know of the implications of the scars, you knew that even Papyrus would know a scar when he saw one. So for Sans to notice the scars meant trouble for you. He's a monster you could tell was observant and deductive yet hid more than he let on. This meant questions.

You don't think you could handle getting questioned.

You were finally approaching a wooden rope bridge, Papyrus leading the entourage with Sans in the back. He claimed to have wanted to make sure you were safe from behind and no monsters attacked you, but you knew that if monsters did try to approach you, Chara or Flowey would let you know. So, of course, being back there was simply an opportunity to torment Flowey.

"Why can't you just go to the front with your stu- with your brother?"

Chara was cackling and whispered, "Nice save."

"because then i'd _leaf_ you alone."

"Oh, come on!"

"and no one wants to be _bonely."_

"SANS, THAT WASN'T EVEN A PLANT PUN!" 

"gimme a break, bro. it takes some _thyme_ to come up with puns for something you haven't practiced yet."

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHETHER YOU SET YOURSELF UP FOR THIS OR YOU'RE GRASPING AT _TWIGS_."

"aw, pap, was that a pun?"

"N-NO. AN UNINTENTIONAL ONE. BECAUSE I'M AROUND YOU TOO MUCH. BUT! IT WAS GREAT! PERHAPS BETTER THAN YOURS. JUST LIKE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

"you're always the best, paps. i'll make sure to use it as my good material at mtt's."

"PLEASE GIVE ME CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE."

Flowey's face could only be described as an irritated straight face. "Why am I caught in the middle of this?"

You were just managing to hold yourself up with how hard you were laughing. And if Chara wasn't a ghost, you'd have to carry them, maybe even drag them all the way to Snowdin. 

Speaking of the town, it was right off in the distance.

Sans, lazy as he was, teleported to the other side of the bridge while Papyrus rushed across to prepare for whatever puzzle he had set up before Snowdin. However, instead of rocking the bridge and making it swing up and down in waves, it held still like a regular path as the tall skeleton dashed across to the end. "What the..?" Standing at the start of the bridge, you put a hesitant hand on the rope, and the fibres brushing against your skin told you they were real. Deciding that it must be magic at work once again, you shrugged it off and began setting foot on the bridge. And yet, the supposed wood did not feel like wood on your feet. Rather, it felt like cold rock. 

You stopped in the middle and tapped the bridge a few times with your foot. It felt like you were tapping cement or something of the like rather than wood. "THERE IS NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT FALLING, HUMAN! THIS BRIDGE IS ACTUALLY VERY STABLE!" You shot your head up at Papyrus and gave him that confused look that you knew asked, 'Why?' The twinkle that appeared in his eye told you that he was going to another one of his ingenious explanations. "YOU SEE, THIS BRIDGE... IS ACTUALLY A ROCK FORMATION THAT I PAINTED OVER." That was the plot twist that you never expected, and it looked as if Flowey and Chara were just as shocked with their expressions mirroring yours. "IT WAS ONLY A PLAIN OLD ROCK PATH HOVERING OVER A CHASM. NO CLASS AT ALL! SO, TO MAKE IT MORE DRAMATIC, I PAINTED OVER THE ENTIRE STRUCTURE! I EVEN WENT INTO DETAIL BY MEASURING THE EXACT WIDTH OF A REAL WOODEN PLANK BEFORE PAINTING THEM ONTO THE BRIDGE ONE BY ONE, AND WITH PERFECTLY STRAIGHT LINES. I WENT EVER FURTHER BY PAINTING ITS PATTERN ONTO EACH INDIVIDUAL PLANK BEFORE ADDING THE ROPE. LOOK, LOOK!"

You trailed your eyes over the bridge, and just like he said, each was painted intricately to appear like a regular wooden plank, but all with the same pattern. It was painted with such care that, even upon closer inspection, you could find no little difference nor mistake that could reveal what usually occurred to those who tried to draw or paint the same thing precisely how they did the first time over and over again. "it only took my bro two days to paint this bridge. and when i say that, i mean he didn't go to sleep. he stayed here painting it until it was done." Papyrus... "man. isn't my bro the coolest?" His voice hid none of the love he carried for his brother, and he sounded proud of it.

To your side, you saw Flowey brush a vine across the ground. He shivered upon making contact with the bridge, but you knew that it wasn't because he knew it was going to be cold. It's because, when you did the same thing, you were expecting to be met with the polished surface of wood or even a splinter when instead, you came in contact with smooth stone. You could hear him hiss, "Doesn't this idiot have anything better to do?"

Chara's face was metaphorically dramatically shrouded in a dark shadow. "Not much to do when you're stuck in a mountain. You have _all_ the time in the world to do whatever you want." And there was that feeling again. That ominous feeling that the words someone had just spoken meant more than what was heard on a surface level. But this time, it had more behind it. When Toriel said something, it didn't sound like she knew that there were deeper implications behind her words. But when Chara spoke them, it was intentional. And whatever they meant was something only they understood as well as Flowey, whose face had morphed back into guilt. Was this something they did when they were regular children?

"NOW, BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!"

From above and below, an array of objects emerged that made your eyes widen in fear. Two spears on either side, a spiky metal ball, a flamethrower (it was more so a pot, but there were flames gushing out of it, so who were you to be nitpicky), a cannon, and... was that a dog? "U-uh, Papyrus? Um, uh, wh-what's this, um, puzzle or trap do, exactly?"

"WHY, WHEN THIS PUZZLE IS FULLY ACTIVATED, CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL- OH. WELL, THEY'RE NOT BLADES. BUT THEY WILL SLICE!" He hummed for a moment. "HOWEVER, IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT THIS IS NEITHER A TRAP NOR A PUZZLE. IT IS SUCH A DIRECT FORM OF CAPTURE. COMPLETELY UNFAIR. AND THAT IS SIMPLY NOT PAPYRUS! SO, FEAR NOT, HUMAN!" He stood in his signature pose. "THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL DEACTIVATE THE GAUNTLET AND RESTORE IT IN A PUZZLE- OR TRAP- APPROPRIATE STATE."

You gave a sigh of relief, and you heard two other sighs that followed yours. "That would be perfect, Papy." And before you could even think about what you were saying, you offered, "I could help you out if you want."

Papyrus' face lit up while the other observers gave only faces of shock. "REALLY?"

In your ear, Flowey hissed, "What do you think you're doing? Are you insane?!"

Even Chara joined in. "Yeah. I thought you were trying to go back home?"

You thought about it for a moment. When Chara said 'home,' did they mean the surface? It was true that you had told neither of them why you had fallen nor all the details behind it, although you had a feeling that Chara would be the most likely to figure out the gist as to why you may not want to return. After all, they felt the emotions you did. So did you really want to return home? No, that's not the right question. Did you want to return to the surface?

"Home is with Toriel back in the Ruins," you boldly stated so only they could hear. And you hoped that you made your point crystal clear when they nodded. 

You returned to your conversation with Papyrus. "I might not know much about how puzzles work, but I can give you some advice on how to make it friendly for both humans and monsters." Starting with removing that dangling dog from the rope.

"WITH TWO PUZZLE-LOVERS WORKING TOGETHER (ONE OF WHICH BEING THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ESTEEMED PUZZLE EXTRAORDINAIRE), WE SHALL MAKE THE GREATEST PUZZLE EVER TO BE SEEN! IT MAY EVEN MATCH MY MAGNIFICENT GREATNESS! NYEH HEH HEH!"

"It sure will." It wasn't hard to see why Sans was so fond of his brother. However, you were still very afraid that the very spiky ball above you may or may not drop and cause you and the odd bridge-looking structure to fall. "So, uh, were you just giving me a preview of the puzzle?"

"HMM?" Papyrus glanced up, and a light sweat beaded up on his skull. "AH, YES! THAT WAS MY INTENTION! YES! THAT'S IT! BECAUSE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS MAKES NO MISTAKES WITH HIS PUZZLES. EVERYTHING WAS THOUGHT OUT AND INTENTIONAL. AHEM! WE WILL RETURN TOMORROW TO CHANGE, CALIBRATE, AND RECALIBRATE THIS PUZZLE UNTIL IT LIVES UP TO MY GREAT STANDARDS. FOR NOW, AWAY IT GOES!" And on his word, the odd objects retracted and returned to wherever they had emerged from. "NOW, ONWARDS! ALL THIS PUZZLE-SOLVING REQUIRES SUSTENANCE. AND YOU HAVE YET TO TRY SOME OF MY WORLD-FAMOUS SPAGHETTI!" It's true that he had cooked up a trap for you, but upon realising that it could not be taken off the table to put into a microwave that couldn't get energy, he decided to wait until you all got to the town.

The tall skeleton made away in a surprising dash with the ground covered in snow all the way to a tall-standing house near the other end of the town. Sans, however, walked alongside you as you quite literally followed Papyrus' footsteps. "if i were you, i would leave out any of your normal expectations for spaghetti. that is, if you ever get to eating it."

You cocked your head in his direction. "His spaghetti back at his trap didn't look so bad." It was true - it looked like your average spaghetti with meatballs, just frozen over.

Sans gave a non-committal shrug. "if you don't mind crunchy pasta and glitter, then you'll be the first to like it."

Alright, that made you cringe. Crunchy pasta sounded nearly as unappealing as chunky milk, but glitter really was the cherry on top. Where is he guessing these ingredients from? "Maybe I could try giving him cooking lessons too, even though I'm not exactly exceptional." Truthfully, the joyful experience of cooking was ruined for you early on. But if it meant teaching Papyrus how to properly cook, you'd move past your fears for him.

"you'll still be better than his current teacher. things get quite _fiery_ back there."

You could hear that there was a pun in that statement, and you narrowed your eyes down at him. "I know you wouldn't insinuate any sexual innuendos involving your brother, but I still don't think I like the implications behind what you said." The only thing you can imagine is utter chaos behind the word 'fiery' in relation to cooking.

In return, he raised a bonebrow at you. "don't think you're out of the dark, though. the cold might go right through me, but there's some things with implications you can't sneak off with."

Oh. He was talking about the scars, wasn't he?

"Uh," you began, "if you're talking about me smuggling Flowey into the house, I think he's already been seen." Great excuse, great excuse.

Flowey snarled. "Hey, leave me out of this!" 

"Really, _____?" Chara taunted. "That was your best excuse?" You just didn't want to talk about these things. Especially not out in the open while you passed by all these shops and monsters.

"you know that's not what i'm talkin' about, bud." He took a glance at your sleeves that you subconsciously took hold of. "unless there isn't anything more that your sleeves are doing besides keeping you warm?" Maybe you should get sleeves with the tight ends to them. The ones with the elastic at the end of your sleeves. God, why didn't you think of that back on the surface? Then you wouldn't be in this situation.

A comforting vine placed itself on your shoulder. "Get your skull out of other people's business, trashbag. Can't you see that she doesn't want to talk about it?" 

"she can speak for herself, weed."

"And you think that's easy when she's being pressured like this?"

Miraculously, you had all reached the house that Papyrus had entered and stopped right in front of the door. "then we stop and let her talk."

Around you, silence echoed at the end of Sans' words. The cheer of the children and the lights of the Christmas tree in the middle of Snowdin suddenly felt so distant to the melancholic atmosphere in your group's little bubble. It was almost out of place amongst the town's vibrancy and cheer.

You finally spoke up after all your thoughts were gathered. "I don't think I want to talk about it now. There's no offence to you or anyone else I've become friends with, but it takes me time to open up about this stuff, even to people I know. Only one of my friends back on the surface knows anything, but they don't even know the whole gist of it. They knew what it was like for me in the beginning, but no one else knows how things are now. So, please give me time to get to know and trust you and your bro. I know that I can trust you now, but I want to know for sure, and if I was ever going to tell anyone anything, I'd have to be comfortable talking about it with that person."

The three people surrounding you took a few moments to take that information in. You made sure to make it applicable to all of them so that, although they hadn't been the ones to ask, they at least knew why you han't told them anything as of yet. "i can understand and respect that. but for now, let's head on inside. even though you might not enjoy my bro's cooking, i think you'll like getting out of this cold."

To break out of what you knew to be your spiraling mindset, you let out a small laugh. "I thought skeletons didn't feel the cold."

He shrugged again. "and if i did, paps and i wouldn't be living here. but at least nothing _gets under our skin."_

If Flowey wasn't ready to burst a vein at the previous puns, he was definitely ready to let a friendliness pellet loose at some point. "You don't even have skin!"

"and here i am talking to a flower in a human's backpack, so we're all in a weird boat. and it's not the riverperson's boat."

More talk of the Underground peaked your interest and curiosity. "Riverperson? What's so weird about their boat?"

Sans only shook his head. "buddy, if you're going to be staying here for a while, you haven't seen the beginning of weird." He stepped forward and opened the door for us to go through. From where you stood, a soft, warm gust of air met your face. "c'mon, get in. otherwise paps will say something about us straggling along."

"SANS!" came Papyrus' voice from the visible kitchen. "STOP BOONDOGGLING AND LET THE HUMAN AND FLOWEY INTO OUR HOME! IT'S NOT A HOSPITABLE THING TO LEAVE OUR GUESTS IN THE COLD."

"heh, told you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How many of you guys actually knew that Papyrus had just painted the bridge and it wasn't really a wooden bridge to begin with? It came as a shock to me when I played the game and called Papyrus in that room. 
> 
> So big tip to get some small canon info: if you can play the game somehow and you haven't tried already, call Papyrus in all of the rooms. Call him twice in each room because he usually has more to say. That's if you're willing to reset the game you have if you've already broken the barrier. I'm not sure you can call him after that since it says his phone might've died. As long as you haven't fought Asgore yet, then call him wherever you can.


	5. Food!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the support all of you have given this fanfic! Just seeing that people have come here to read it means a lot to me. Speaking of that, I can see that this fic is getting close to 1k hits (at this point in time, 11 days before 2020's Christmas), so look out for a really quick design I did for the reader once we get to that mark. For those of you who haven't visited the Tumblr or probably don't wanna go all the way over there, I'll post the picture in the notes on the next chapter if we get to 1k hits by that time.
> 
> It's really obvious where I got more inspiration later in the chapter XD
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> (And feel free to do whatever on [the tumblr](http://bright-light-and-second-chances.tumblr.com/))

Papyrus' spaghetti was... nothing you have ever tasted before.

"WOWIE! SUCH PASSIONATE EXPRESSIONS ON YOUR FACES."

The flower that was placed on the table next to you, however, was grumbling. "Passionate, yeah." But he daren't say anything more with Sans nearby. Despite his obvious laziness, it was clear that Sans must've been more powerful and intimidating than he let on if Flowey was so scared of him. "I feel so many things about this spaghetti, it's indescribable." And perhaps you were the only person alive in that room who understood what he meant. Chara was, naturally, cackling in Flowey's misery.

Deciding that you'd better get Flowey out of the hole he would keep digging for himself, you interjected. "Maybe I could show you a few recipes from the surface. And, um, since you've shown me the way that you've made spaghetti here, maybe I could make my own spaghetti for you to try." You had told Sans that you'd give his brother cooking lessons after all. But how would you offer those to such a soft-hearted skeleton without insulting his cooking? This was honestly the best start you could think of: show Papyrus how you make spaghetti, then maybe he'll pick something up.

"THAT WOULD BE AN EXCELLENT BONDING ACTIVITY AS WELL AS A METHOD TO IMPROVE OUR CULINARY SKILLS!" You couldn't help but smile at the same passion Papyrus showed for cooking as he did with puzzles. Were you like that once? "THIS WAY, WE HIT TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE."

"Exactly," you agreed. "Then we could compare how each of our spaghetti tastes and try cooking the other person's spaghetti. Even though mine will never be as great as yours." Imagining the scenario in your mind, you shivered with anxiety at the idea of trying to cook up Papyrus' spaghetti. But thinking about the skeleton in question made you realise that you'd do anything to keep that innocent smile on his face. And besides, cooking something bad on purpose with the energy level you expected sounded like some good emotional therapy.

Papyrus had once again resumed his proud pose, his magical scarf floating in the imaginary wind. "NYEH HEH HEH! YOU MAY NEVER MATCH MY GREATNESS, HUMAN, BUT THROUGH OUR NEW COOKING BONDING ACTIVITY, I WILL LEAD YOUR PROWESS IN THE KITCHEN TO HEIGHTS IN GREATNESS THAT YOU NEVER THOUGHT YOU'D ACHIEVE! AND THAT! IS MY GREATNESS. NOT JUST AS GREAT. BUT I SHALL GET YOU CLOSE!" He hummed for a moment. "ALTHOUGH I MUST ADMIT THAT I WILL HAVE TO TASTE MY OWN SPAGHETTI BEFORE I CAN BE CAPABLE ABLE OF DRAWING A COMPARISON."

"Wait, what?"

If there was anything that you knew, it was that the chef should at least have a bite of their own food before giving it to others. But judging by your earlier glimpse of spaghetti containers stocked in the fridge and the general fact that Papyrus had never stopped cooking his spaghetti, everyone else must've been just like you and couldn't bring themselves to tell Papyrus the truth. 

Also, did tasting food work with skeletons? You knew that magic food instantly absorbed into your body and became energy, but would monsters like the skeleton brothers be able to taste? Maybe something in the magic allowed for it. You just never thought of it since most monsters you had encountered had tongues to taste things with.

Meanwhile, Papyrus acted as if this were normal. Even Sans wasn't fazed. "I HAVE ONLY BEEN MAKING MY SPAGHETTI BECAUSE EVERYONE SEEMS TO LOVE IT SO MUCH! IT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME THAT I MAY HAVE TO TASTE MY OWN DISH SOMEDAY."

"And, um," you slowly uttered, "why's that?"

"EATING SPAGHETTI CAN BECOME SUCH A MESSY TASK," he affirmed with a mildly disgruntled face. "HAVE YOU SEEN HOW THE RED SAUCE SPLATTERS OVER PEOPLES' FACES?" You shrugged in agreeance, and Flowey, simply observing the interaction, just nodded. "IT'S UNTIDY! UNNEAT! UNMANNERLY AND UN-PAPYRUS! NOT TO MENTION THAT THESE EXPERTLY COOKED MASTERPIECES ARE PART OF MY ROYAL GUARD TRAINING, AND IS THEREFORE THE PERFECT SET UP FOR A TRAP! SO I NEVER THOUGHT THAT I'D EVER NEED TO TASTE IT." You gazed shocked from Papyrus, to Sans, and finally, to Flowey.

The flower in question seemed to be deep in thought. "Now that I think about it, I've never really seen you eat your own spaghetti. Huh. I never thought to question that before. I just assumed that you'd tried it at some point." 

"Then if spaghetti isn't your favourite food, which is what I assumed before I found this out, what is your favourite food?"

"WHY, THAT IS... HMM. I ACTUALLY DON'T KNOW. SANS, DO YOU KNOW?"

Sans shrugged, although you were surprised to see his plate wiped clean. Since when did he start eating? "nope."

Flowey interjected. "It's that oatmeal with the dinosaur eggs, isn't it?" You shook your head in disbelief. Oatmeal with _what,_ now? 

"OH, YES, THAT'S IT!"

Once again, Sans' bonebrow had been raised in suspicious curiosity. What could have gone on between Flowey and Sans that created such a suffocating atmosphere full of tension? It was like they were waiting for either of them to attack someone, or hurt someone, or to cause some ruckus at any given moment.

So, once again, it was _____ to Flowey's rescue. "Then maybe I could make that for you whenever you have breakfast in exchange for bringing me here safely." It was a small thing compared to what he's done for you, but you kept a mental note to keep adding to the list.

A mixture of emotions had passed over Papyrus' face before he settled for his regular joyful smile. "A GENEROUS OFFER! I SHALL GLADLY ACCEPT. ALTHOUGH YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT I WOULD'VE AIDED YOU REGARDLESS OF ANY FAVOURS I'D GAIN IN RETURN."

Your heart twisted in an odd way from his words. How was he this pure? This altruistic? Although he was a little full of himself and desperately desired the popularity and attention that came with being a royal guard (that of which you clearly knew entailed more than 'capturing' a human), he would never think to ask anything from anyone if he saw that they needed help. You doubt he even thought about what good or bad it would do him, royal guard or no, unless he was too innocent to properly act on it or went against his morals. And after being with Papyrus, it was clear that one of his morals was to never kill nor significantly harm another being. You made sure to add to your mental list to ask when Papyrus' birthday was and what he'd want for Christmas because you'd be damned if you didn't get him something amazing. 

Sans better know where they're hiring here in the Underground. 

...They'd hire a human, right?

Flowey and you had eaten your food slowly before Papyrus announced not long after that he was off to train with Undyne, the captain of the royal guard who also happened to be his cooking instructor. Sans said that they'd likely be doing both, so it would be some time before Papyrus came home which gave him an excuse to nap. So, deciding to be the good guest, you picked up all the dishes and brought them over to the kitchen to wash them.

Only to be faced with a sink taller than Papyrus. 

"How did he even manage to do that?!" Flowey shrieked even though you'd moved back to the table for help solving this dilemma. "And how are you meant to wash the dishes when you can't even see the sink?"

"I mean, all you have to do is extend the pipes and add a bit more stuff to make it taller," Chara noted. "And I don't think they really need to do much dishes here. Papyrus probably uses a stool or some really elaborate bone structure to reach it if he needs to."

"Those questions weren't meant to be answered!"

You motioned your hands at them to lower their volume. "Calm down, you two." You checked the large cupboard underneath only to be met with stagnant emptiness. "We just need to find a way up there temporarily, and maybe later we could construct some tall stool with a ladder on the side." With how high the sink was, you were thinking more so along the lines of those umpire chairs rather than a regular stool.

The three of you hummed in thought, and for a moment, you considered dragging the table over and stacking the side table from the lounge on top of the larger table. You'd definitely reach the top of the sink despite the risk of falling. After some time, Flowey perked up. "I got an idea. Do you feel comfortable with not feeling any ground below your feet?"

You felt the blood drain out of your face. "Not really, no." You liked being on solid ground, thank you very much. Anything less for more than a few seconds would leave you light-headed.

"Ah, geez, I have to do everything. Just place me under the sink, then grab the dishes again." So you did as he said, quickly plopping him and his flowerpot directly under the sink before grabbing the dishes you'd placed on the counter. You were thankful that they were only a few plates and some cutlery, otherwise, you'd feel much more anxious about completing these dishes. "Alright, brace yourself." A vine wrapped around your waist as Flowey asked, "Chara, you think there's enough magic on those dishes for you to dry them? I don't think there's a place for _____ to put them."

Experimentally, Chara picked up a fork from your pile, then carefully lifted up and held a plate in their hand. They didn't seem to struggle. On the other hand, it was almost like they expected the plate to be heavier. "His spaghetti must've been on these plates long enough for them to feel the same weight as the forks." Based on his spaghetti trap, you believed that with a concerning amount of certainty.

Chara placed the dishes back as Flowey prepared you. "Okay. _____, hold on to those dishes really tight. I'm going to be lifting you up to the sink, then I'll put a layer of vines under your feet so it feels like a solid platform." His vine tightened just a little, a sign to you that said he was getting ready himself. "Ready?"

You took in a deep breath. "Ready." And slowly, Flowey had lifted you up to a comfortable level in front of the sink as the feeling of multiple thick vines laced under your feet and made a small square platform. With Chara prepared, carrying a cloth by your side, you placed all the dishes in the sink, grabbed the sponge and dishwashing liquid, and finally began the chore.

It didn't take you longer than a few minutes, and it was easily quicker than finding a solution to the problem itself. And, after experiencing the solution, you huffed a laugh to yourself at how big a deal you made it seem. You could get used to the tall sink, more so once you'd found or constructed a stool for it. It didn't stop you from breathing a sigh of relief once you got back on the floor, though.

You placed both hands on your hips exaggeratedly and flicked your eyes between your two friends. "I'd say we make a pretty good team, guys."

The ghost rolled their eyes. "If you want to keep this up in the future, you're going to need to explain to the skele-bros that you've got an invisible friend helping you out."

Snarkily, you remarked, "Imagine if I told them that it's the ghost of the monster kingdom's human prinx. Papyrus would work himself into a fit trying to impress royalty living in his house." Because if Papyrus went through all this effort to get into the royal guard and to be a good host, you had no idea to what extent he'd go to when it comes to being a good host to royalty. 

Disgruntled, Chara made a dismissive hand motion towards us. "You can take all the spaghetti you want. I'll be just fine." This actually made you wonder if ghosts were able to eat. Chara had never eaten anything since you'd woken them up, so you assumed that they didn't need to eat. Could they eat at all? The two ghosts you knew did have mouths, but what about the food? It might be magic but did ghosts work the same way? Except they were two different types of ghosts...

You'd better back off this train of thought before you give yourself a headache courtesy of yourself and Papyrus' spaghetti. 

"If you really want to avoid that spaghetti," Flowey began, "maybe just slowly take over the cooking in the kitchen. You know, to thank Papyrus for being a generous host or for looking after you or something."

You nodded approvingly at his idea. Perhaps you could steadily pay Papyrus back with cooking throughout the day every day as well as cooking lessons, and that would eventually take that you'd taken advantage of literally the nicest person on the planet off of your conscience. And when you opened the fridge to see nothing more than the spaghetti container collection and a lone empty chips bag, you made firm on that decision while establishing one thing:

"We're going to need to do some serious shopping."

* * *

You breathed out a deep sigh of relief when, three shopping bags later, you had closed the door to the large wooden house and had a satisfying amount of food shopping to last a couple of days. The bunny shopkeeper never noticed that you were a human, but they had noticed that you were certainly not from these parts. Nevertheless, your shopping trip ended up quite successful, the money that Toriel gave you just enough to buy everything you believed you'd need. 

Surprisingly, the closing of the door was what woke the sleeping skeleton on the couch from his nap. How he never woke up from the racket you stirred earlier, you would never know. But you guessed that with such a loud-spoken brother, noise must've been something he had gotten accustomed to. Still, why the door? "oh. hey, kiddo." He eyed the shopping bags you were holding as you manoeuvred your way to the kitchen counter. "whatcha got there?"

You huffed as you reached up to the counter and placed all the bags down. "Ingredients for the next few days."

From the living room, you heard some shuffling and footsteps as Sans walked over to inspect the shopping. You didn't give him so much time, though, as you were already beginning to put them in either the kitchen cupboards or the fridge. In the back of your mind, you suddenly wondered if the fridges in the Underground only served to keep food cold rather than keep them from expiring.

Sans held up a small bag of rice with a confused stare, and when you gladly thanked him and plucked it from his hands to put with the other things in the cupboard, he gave the same stare at the big bag of vegetables you'd packed. "uh, a lot of these things don't look like typical spaghetti ingredients."

"Well, if you were hoping for more glitter, then I'm sorry to disappoint you," you sarcastically input as you watched a little sincere joy fill his face.

He shook his head. "nah, it's alright. i think i can do without glitter for some time." You had finally placed the last item in the fridge when he asked, "so, if these ingredients aren't for spaghetti, then what'd you buy them for?"

He followed you out of the kitchen, you first placing Flowey on the table before you slunk deep into the worn, comfy green couch. Now, _this_ was a good way of relaxing. "Just other things that I might end up cooking. Fried rice, stir fry, spring rolls, those types of things." When you thought about it now, those were a lot of foods that were not only Asian, but were foods often the product of leftovers.

Sans hummed and shrugged from his equally slouched position on the couch. "sounds good. would be great to get a break from the regular." He cushioned himself ever more comfortably in his seat with his hoodie, and for a few moments, you all rested in a pleasant silence. Flowey was sat surprisingly quietly as he tried to figure out a way to draw with a pencil in his mouth on a drawing pad with which you had packed back at Toriel's place, and Chara was trying to give them instructions on possibly a few mischievous drawings to do. They brought their hand down as reference, though, and tried encouraging Flowey to draw around it. From the looks of it, he kept drawing through their hand and expressed his annoyance and anger in rapid frustrated scribbles.

"say, human," Sans started. "where'd you get the gold to buy all those things, though?"

A moment of confusion passed over you before you got what Sans may be implying. "Oh, Toriel. She's basically my adoptive mother back in the Ruins. She gave me the gold that I spent, although I didn't think that nearly all of it would've gotten me that much." You chuckled. "I think you and her would get along really well. She likes really bad jokes like you." You were definitely not going to forget the day when you heard her make her first joke and she spent the entire day wearing out her joke bank just to gain a reaction out of Flowey. According to her, it was going to help her out with her joke material and because his reactions "remind me of someone I loved dearly." At least now you could see where the link was.

For the first time since you'd met Sans, he looked like the energy he left cooped up had come out a little in the way that he slightly perked up in interest. "she an old lady, probably goat-like since she's made so many goat puns, motherly tone, has a really old way of talking?"

"Yep, that's her. How'd you know about her?"

"i crack knock-knock jokes at that big door you came out of in the forest."

 _"Phft._ That must be why she's got a few skeleton- and bone-related puns in her diary." You recall that being one of her favourite books asides from the snail facts book, her cookbook, and her special snail cookbook.

"i'm honoured." He sat still for a few seconds before snickering. "i tried baking this butterscotch-cinnamon pie with the recipe that she'd given me to give her something back, but i know i didn't do it nearly as good. she must have a 'magic' touch that i don't know, heh. so i just stick to the occasional quiche."

This caught your attention. "You bake?" Of all the things that Sans could've possibly been able to do, you didn't think that baking would've been one of them.

He shrugged. "sure. sometimes. i usually bake a cake for my bro's birthday, and sometimes we bake cookies for santa. and hey, when you think about it, it's like chemistry: you put in this reactant and you pour in that reactant, you mix them together and you've got a product. you keep adding things to your liking while keeping the ratios and toss it somewhere to be heated and raised. and the best part? waiting. i could take a nap while it cooks, and by the time i wake up, it's ready." He sighed again as if reminiscing or in sadness. "but i haven't really felt like it too much. besides, my bro is always baking his spaghetti, and that makes him happy. i'd better leave the kitchen to him."

Truthfully, this conversation with Sans left you with more questions than answers. It was now known that Sans had some sort of an interest in science based on his chemistry-cooking analogy, but to what extent was his interest? Had he dabbled in chemistry before? He definitely used the chemistry terminology you remember hearing in high school, but it sounded so surface level. Were his interests further than chemistry? And his passion for baking - where did it go? What happened to his want and passion to do much of anything? His behaviour pointed to a little apathy, because it didn't seem as if he put in any effort into anything besides his brother. Did something happen to him? Did he learn something that made him give up? Whatever it was, something told you that the mystery behind Sans was deeper than the mystery that lay in Flowey's past. Perhaps you'd buy some detective clothing as another piece of mockery against yourself.

"'toriel.'" Sans had said the name in a way that made it sound as if he was testing how it sounded on his tongue. Well, you weren't sure if he had a tongue to begin with, but he was definitely testing the name out. "it's good to be able to put a name to a friend. now i can start making up name-based puns." Although you laughed on the outside, you were wondering on the inside, 'Why hadn't she told him her name?' Maybe it was because she was the former queen and she didn't want people to see her that way, or maybe it was so no one accidentally slipped to the king where his wife had been all this time. Would he have searched for his wife? Did he think to check the Ruins? Or did he respect her wishes to leave him? Either way, it still broke your heart to see the loneliness that Toriel had lived through, and had no doubt that the king, whether his actions were wrong or not, was facing the same gloomy fate.

Your trailed-off laughter must've been misinterpreted, because a familiar bony, reassuring hand was suddenly on your shoulder. "hey, why don't we get you a job? that way, you can buy yourself some stuff, support yourself for however long you're gonna be stayin' here, and it'll give your adoptive mom something a little less to worry about. i'll even give her updates when i'm cracking out my jokes."

You gaped at Sans. He'd be willing to do that for you? "Really?" Most humans you'd met wouldn't even help you try to find a job and would leave you to your own devices to do so. They'd tell you how easy it was to find a job even though, besides the fast food places, it was difficult to apply anywhere due to the need for experience. You worked to get yourself out of that loophole so that you no longer had to deal with your job once you entered into university. Most people were too busy with their own lives to help you out with yours as well. And yet you had Sans the skeleton helping you out with finding a job. Sans, a monster you'd just established may be too apathetic to care for more than his brother. Unless he was only doing it because you were a human in a monster world, or because he was taking pity on you, or even just to get you out of his house. There were a plethora of reasons he could've been doing this for.

He really was a mystery.

"of course," he responded. "i think grillbs would really appreciate the help over at his joint, and if you ever need more g, i can help you start branching out from there."

You really didn't know how to respond beyond the simple, "Thank you."

"well, we have to make sure that you're comfortable staying here in our house," he mentioned nonchalantly. "i figured you wouldn't like the idea of freeloading on our couch while using our money to buy ingredients, and i knew you'd want a job to get your own cash if that's how you thought, so i thought that i might help you out instead of accidentally getting captured by the rest of the royal guard."

Wait...

"I'm staying _here?"_ You knew that Papyrus said that he'd be leading you towards Snowdin, but you thought that you'd get yourself a room at the inn that you saw when you were walking to the house earlier. 

"of course you are. the inn is too expensive to stay in for more than a few days, and paps has really grown a liking to you. he'll want to make sure that you're safe, and since it seems like you two are gonna be friends, he'll want to keep you close, your very much human nature being a main part in that. plus, you did offer to help out with his puzzles and do some cooking with him." You almost forgot that you said you'd help him with his puzzles.

Sans laughed. "where did you think he meant when he said he'd take you somewhere you'd be 'warmly accomodated and cared for?' he'll tell you the inn is great, sure, but he'll recommend you stay in our home in the end." And before you could refute his response, he threw in, "he won't let you say no, so you may as well accept it. and hey, i bet he'll give you a warm blanket and some milk before bed. say it's good for your bones."

You had no more words for Papyrus' kindness. You swore on your heart that he'd get whatever he wanted, and you were slowly beginning to understand where the devotion to appease Papyrus had come from for Sans. 

The monsters... They were so much kinder than any human being you had ever known. And you knew that with complete certainty now. 

You sat there profusedly thanking Sans, practically swearing on your life that you would guard and protect Papyrus to the ends of the earth, and any harm done upon him would be worthy of the utmost disgrace. Understandably, you were being overdramatic with the last part, but it was the best way to convey your feelings of gratitude before lapsing back into the same comfortable silence. It was this way that the both of you remained until you decided to get up and cook dinner, a booming voice accompanied with the opening of the door making you smile as you served the food onto four plates and carried them over to the table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ecto-tongue? No ecto-tongue? Gimme answers! I'll put it in a Tumblr poll too.
> 
> I wanna stick to canon as much as possible, but I also don't mind deviating from canon a little bit. If we go with ecto-tongue, I'll make up some random crap according to canon evidence. Same kinda goes with no ecto-tongue. I'll make something up using as much canon evidence as possible. 
> 
> I'm definitely gonna come back and edit this chapter, but I wanted to get this out to you guys as fast as possible. I'll eventually read over the whole story one time before making the next chapter since I wrote this one over the span of a week.


	6. Oatmeal and Night Terrors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1k hits! (Well, it's 1250 as I write this, but when I wrote the initial note, it was just over) I never imagined I'd actually get here this quick. It definitely felt like an achievable goal for me, but I honestly thought this might be left in the dust or hardly looked at, so it's really cool to see that people are enjoying this fic. So, like I said, here's the link to my [reader drawing](https://bright-light-and-second-chances.tumblr.com/post/637513769415819264/my-reader-interpretation-the-entire-outfit-out-of) that I've done. Please keep in mind that this is how I have interpreted them to look in my own head and off the bat like I've written in the caption. 
> 
> The drama for this chapter? Well, you'll see. It's a lot longer than the previous ones, too.
> 
> Yes, we're going to have an ecto-tongue. Hopefully, I'll explain it in a way that makes as many people happy as possible, but you won't be seeing that this chapter.
> 
> Here we go!

You knew that the skeleton brothers' couch was comfortable, but you never expected that it would be as comfortable as a bed. When you woke up at what your phone told you was an early morning (your sleeping schedule was real messed up without a proper night or day to judge the time from), you had to observe your surroundings to remember that you were on a couch in a living room rather than a single sized bed. The warm, thick blanket covering your body did not help in your judgement, and the fact that they had multiple spare blankets in the first place made you wonder if they ever had visitors. Hopefully, they were just as naive to the fact that you were a human as most monsters seemed to be.

Despite your reluctance to leave your spot and the temptation to close your eyes and get some more sleep, you also recalled your promises to Papyrus to make his dinosaur egg oatmeal for breakfast, help him with his puzzles and to cook with him later on. If you were going to be around such an energetic skeleton for a majority of your day and the following days to come, you may as well prepare yourself for his loud words and the idea of any social interaction.

You sat up lazily and gave yourself some time to wake up which came in the form of sitting still with lots of blinking and rescanning your surroundings. Chara was simply staring out of the window with a soft expression on their face, the distant flickering of the lights on the decorated tree in the middle of the town illuminating yet also passing through their body. You decided to leave them in their calm silence. The flowerpot on the table was empty which told you that Flowey had not yet returned from when you'd let him out last night to update Toriel and stretch his stem. Thinking of your adoptive mother, you hoped that she was doing well. You made another mental note to text her and ask how she was doing after breakfast.

From upstairs, Sans' room was still emitting its mysterious flames, something you learnt was completely normal and entirely painless, and there was no light coming from Papyrus' room. Since there was no noise around the house neither a note in large handwriting, you assumed that Papyrus was taking one of his naps. You thought that you'd surely wake up at some point at night since Papyrus more so naps for a few hours rather than actually sleeping, but surprisingly, you were well-rested. You were either extremely tired or were already used to Papyrus' loud volume.

At last, you deemed yourself awake enough. You reluctantly stretched your arms out as you stood up, slipped on the spare fluffy house slippers Sans had lying around and padded your way towards the kitchen. While you did so, you tried to comb through the bird's nest you called your hair in order to make it satisfactory enough for walking around the house. It would do for that moment, but you'd have to find a brush if you wanted it to look decent. 

The box of the oatmeal was standing on the counter where you'd left it the previous night. The instructions were facing your way, and the pre-filled kettle was stationed and ready to be heated. You're thankful you had the hindsight to fill it up after you'd finished the dishes, otherwise, you'd have to think up another elaborate plan as to how to get up there without Flowey.

You pressed the flap down on the kettle and listened as the water began to boil inside the machine before opening one of the packets in the box and pouring it into a bowl. In the meantime, you grabbed one of the mugs in the cabinets with 'Bad to the bone' on its ceramic surface (the bone part being an actual illustration of a bone) and prepared the golden flower tea that you'd bought yesterday. There was such an abundance of this type of tea in the store that you felt obliged to try it out. And honestly, it didn't sound so bad. If human tea is made with leaves in hot water, then magic flower tea didn't sound all that odd. It would've been a big bonus to suddenly have blonde hair seventy-feet long that could heal anything with a small song, though.

The click of the kettle and the sound of the water simmering down told you that the water was ready to pour. Since the instructions said that the oatmeal only needed ninety seconds until it was ready, you poured some water into your mug and waited for around a minute before pouring the remaining water into the oatmeal bowl. You couldn't help but stare as you stirred the oatmeal and the dinosaur eggs dissolved to reveal the "hatched" dinosaurs in different colours, the swiftness and quirkiness of the food making sense as Papyrus' favourite food. Whether he could taste it or not, it was a quick breakfast that had a little more excitement than regular oatmeal. And since Papyrus was the type of person who wanted to get things done and be active as much as possible, this seemed like just the right thing. 

You made a resolve to deliver Papyrus' breakfast up to his room. Although you'd normally call people down for breakfast if you were the one to make it, there was something about breakfast in bed that made a person feel special. With this decision firmly in your mind, you slipped a plastic serving tray from the bottom cabinets, placed the bowl with the spoon in the centre as best you could, and as a final touch, a neatly tucked napkin on the side of the bowl. You made a split-second choice to add a tall glass of milk to the order.

You briefly wondered if you should fix something up for Sans. You shook your head. "Maybe later," you said to yourself. If he slept later than Papyrus, then you'd wait for some time before you cooked some food. Pancakes drenched in maple syrup are probably best fresh.

"You say something, _____?" Chara asked as they floated over to you.

Slightly iffy on that statement, you moved your head in a way that was a mix of a 'yes' and 'no.' "Just talking to myself." To your relief, Chara just shrugged it off instead of questioning you further.

You gripped the sides of the tray in a firm grip, eyeing the bowl with a glare almost daring it to spill as you tip-toed up the stairs. However, just as you'd reached the final step, a noise from down the hallway made you stop in your tracks.

_Thump._

Was that from Sans' room? If it was, you wouldn't want to disturb him. Something could've just fallen down or he could've hit the wall in his sleep. Hey, with how heavy he slept, he could've fallen on the floor. 

Chara flitted their eyes between you and Sans' door multiple times before saying, "The coast seems clear. I felt a hint of Sans' magic but nothing else after that. Might just be him existing or something." Their comedic words cheering you up, you laughed and released a breath as you tapped lightly on the younger skeleton brother's door. You heard the sound of fabric lightly shuffling, but no other noise was made. 

You hummed. "Hopefully that means that he's asleep." As quiet as you could, you turned the knob on the door and swung the door open, careful not to disturb the sleeping skeleton whether he was asleep or not.

Papyrus' room was very Papyrus. His floor had a large mat with a fire pattern on the edges, something you could imagine Papyrus thinking of as cool like the pirate flag on his wall. There was not a speck of dust on the big old box computer in the corner nor action figures on the desk next to his racecar bed and, when you carefully moved some over to put the tray down, the bookshelf on his wall ranged from novels and manuals about puzzles to children's books. One of the children's books was more worn than the others - 'Peek-a-boo with Fluffy Bunny.' You smiled at the thought of Sans reading this book to Papyrus as a bedtime story and briefly wondered if they knew of any Disney stories. Things seemed to float down from the surface to the Underground somehow, so perhaps there were a few picture books floating around.

When you turned back, Papyrus had opened his eye sockets and was just sitting up. What mildly surprised you when he sat up was that he was still wearing his battle body, and you really had to laugh internally remembering Sans mentioning that he hadn't taken it off since a costume party some time ago. "AH! GOOD MORNING, HUMAN." You laughed. Only Papyrus would keep his loud volume directly after waking up. However, this was a bit more contained than his usual loud self, possibly in consideration of you and his brother. His attention was brought to the tray on the table, and his eye sockets widened in glee. "GASP! DINOSAUR EGG OATMEAL. MY FAVOURITE!" Out of nowhere, Papyrus jumped up and pulled you into a hug. Surprisingly, he was very cuddly. "THANK YOU FOR PREPARING THIS DELICIOUS MEAL FOR ME. AND IT WAS JUST AS YOU SAID YESTERDAY, TOO! IS THIS WHAT HAVING A FRIEND IS LIKE?"

You frowned at that statement. Who wouldn't want to be friends with this amazing skeleton? "Yeah," you eventually said as you pat the back of his breastplate, "something like that."

"WOWIE! WHO KNEW THAT ALL I NEEDED TO DO TO MAKE FRIENDS... WAS TO GIVE THEM PUZZLES AND THEN LET THEM STAY IN YOUR HOUSE." He hummed. "PERHAPS I DON'T HAVE ROOM FOR EVERYONE IN OUR HUMBLE ABODE, BUT I SHALL MAKE DO FOR ANY FRIEND IN NEED. NYEH-HEH-HEH!" He released you from the hug in a way that made you near dizzy by the force that it was done. You were standing, at the very least. "HUMAN! PLEASE WAIT WHILE I CONSUME YOUR HEARTILY PREPARED MEAL. HAVE SOME BREAKFAST OF YOUR OWN, IN FACT. THEN! WE WILL WAKE MY LAZY BROTHER FROM HIS LONG NAP AND PURSUE A DAY FILLED WITH THRILLS! ADVENTURE! DAREDEVIL DARINGNESS! THAT IS A DAY OF PUZZLE RECALIBRATION AND COOKING GALORE. HOWEVER, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY YOU HAVE BROUGHT THE MEAL TO MY ROOM."

"Oh," was how you began. "Well, I was thinking of giving you breakfast in bed."

"BREAKFAST IN BED?"

"Yeah, um, it's a way that humans sometimes serve breakfast to make someone feel special and cared for." You never thought you'd have to explain something like this, but you found that you did really well on the spot for something you'd never prepared for. And it was true - when you were younger and had your brighter days, your grandma would hand you a tray of bacon, sausage and eggs and tell you to hand it to your sleeping mother along with the card you'd drawn her. What simple days those were.

"THAT SOUNDS... SO LAZY," Papyrus commented. "MY BROTHER WOULD LOVE THIS HUMAN CUSTOM. BUT! SEEING AS I HAVE BEEN GRACIOUSLY PRESENTED WITH THIS CUSTOM, THEN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL BE A LITTLE LAZY FOR SOME TIME TO INDULGE IN WHAT YOU WISH." And so, with his boundless energy, he pounced back into his bed and blanket in a sitting position, back rigid and straight with the blanket covering his lower half.

You wondered when the surprises would stop, yet hoped that they never did at the same time.

You smiled as you placed the tray onto Papyrus' lap and informed him that you'd be downstairs making some toast for yourself. Like him, you needed a fast and small breakfast, but more so because you were rushing to school or work rather than out of a desire to do any physical activity. 

This time, you'd just closed Papyrus' bedroom door when another sound was heard.

_Thump._

And again, it was from the direction of Sans' room. Maybe something else was knocked over?

_Crack!_

Or Papyrus had a secret puzzle in Sans' room that he'd accidentally activated?

_Crash!_

The Annoying Dog was in there?

_GWOHHH!!!_

Alright, even the Annoying Dog couldn't have made that sound.

"That's Sans' magic," Chara said urgently. "And it's really strong." 

_Smash!_

Your ghostly friend widened their eyes in bewilderment. "The hell?! Is there a break-in or something?"

Still a little scared and worried, you marched your way over to the mysterious door. "Whatever it is, it doesn't sound very good." You clamped your hand into a fist and knocked on the door. "Sans? Sans, what's going on?" Another knock. "Sans?" You tried turning the knob, but the door was locked. "Sans, the door's locked. Seriously, what's happening in there? Sans!"

Three bones jutted through the door, and you were thankful for your amazing reflex of jumping back at the last second when they did. But either way, it didn't help your brain process the situation. "What in the...?" You were breathing heavily and still trying to calm down from the adrenaline, although you're not sure how much nor how quick a person could calm down when they had been inches away from being impaled.

Papyrus' door opened from down the hallway. "OH, DEAR. THIS IS A LITTLE WORSE THAN LAST TIME. HMM." In his gloved hand, Papyrus was holding a key that must've been one to open Sans' door.

But, hold on. "Wait, 'last time?' What do you mean by that?"

"ER..." As he trailed off, a tiny bead of sweat formulated on his skull. "PLEASE ASK THIS QUESTION LATER, HUMAN. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT TIME NOR SPACE TO BE DOING SO, AND I DO NOT WANT MY BROTHER MESSING WITH EITHER IN HIS SLEEP. HE MIGHT END UP ALL THE WAY IN THE CORE FOR ALL I KNOW. WE MUST CALM HIM DOWN." You'd easily deemed that a sensible idea right as Papyrus had eased open the door and rushed to his brother's side. "THERE, THERE, BROTHER. NOTHING IS HARMING YOU NOW. IT'S OKAY." Papyrus kept on this steady mantra of reassuring words as he soothed his skull and eventually embraced him in a loose hug. As he did so, you watched as the bones thrown and grown around the bewildering room vanished, leaving only the traces of their damage behind. The sock collection in the corner behind the door remained generally unperturbed, the mind-twisting small self-sustaining tornado to your right filled with nothing more than a plate of swirling spaghetti, paper and more socks, and the odd treadmill in the centre of the room scratched and dented but otherwise intact. The lamp sitting on top of the drawers on the other side of the room was knocked over, though. 

The only thing that was seemingly troubling was a scorched circle on the left wall. What could've been the cause of that?

With everything calmed down, you deemed it safe to quietly approach the mattress on the floor where Sans lay, his eye sockets gradually opening. Two tiny pinpricks of white light met the worried faces of you and Papyrus. "paps? _____?" Said pinpricks darted around his room, and you noticed the knowing yet tired glances that he gave the holes and scratches. He sighed. "another one, huh?" Again, there was that implied reference to there being multiple incidents.

"YES, BROTHER." You'd seen Papyrus annoyed, sad, mildly worried and even a bit embarrassed. But his face showed a level of concern you never thought you'd see on such a bright monster. "YOU WERE GOING SO WELL, TOO! YOUR LONGEST STREAK YET." More questions were developing. Streaks? Have they had to count the days he hasn't fought in his sleep or had nightmares at all? 

"heh, yeah. it'll be a nightmare trying to beat it."

Instead of overly reacting like you may have expected, Papyrus deadpanned, "SANS, I HARDLY THINK THIS IS AN APPROPRIATE TIME FOR PUNS."

"you're right. i mean, i did end up getting trampled by a beast. i do need some time to rest up."

"WHAT BEAST?"

"the night mare."

The younger skeleton sighed. "IT'S A WONDER HOW YOU CAN COME UP WITH SUCH TOM FOOLERY AFTER SUCH A SERIOUS EVENT."

"darkness has gotta be chased away with some light somehow, pap. like in those animes that alph showed us. a _punny_ joke oughta do something like that, right?"

"IF YOUR DEFINITION OF 'A LIGHT TO CHASE AWAY THE DARKNESS' IS ALSO YOUR DEFINITION OF FUNNY, THEN I THINK I'LL NEED TO BUY ANOTHER SET OF TWINKLY LIGHTS TO HANG AROUND YOUR ROOM SINCE THERE IS NOTHING BRIGHT ABOUT THEM."

"good one, bro."

"THANK YOU!"

You felt really awkward standing by the door. It felt like you were intruding on a very intimate and private moment between the two brothers as if you were also another ghost floating beside Chara who wasn't meant to be peeking in. However, neither brother voiced any complaints, so you mustered up all your nerves as you took a step or two closer and crouched. "Was there anything you needed? I was thinking about making breakfast for you, but I wasn't so sure since you weren't awake yet." It was really the only way you knew how to lighten up the situation.

Heh, 'lighten.'

Sans rubbed his skull, and only then did you notice some darker ridges under his eye sockets. Did skeletons get baggy eyes too? "that's real nice of you. but, uh, i might need to get used to being awake, first. bad night or no, this ain't really my normal waking time. may need to give me a few minutes." That was something you deeply understood. Weren't you doing something similar not a few minutes ago?

You nodded to show your understanding. "I'll be cooking some pancakes downstairs. If you aren't down there before they're done, I _might_ extend the same courtesy that I gave Papyrus."

"and what was that?" he asked, curiously.

"OH, NO."

"Breakfast in bed."

He pondered on the words for a moment. Another second. And you watched as his permanent grin stretched into a more genuine smile. "heh, sounds just my speed. don't tempt me." Papyrus groaned, but you only laughed. The guess that Papyrus made about Sans' opinion on breakfast in bed turned out to be accurate, but you suppose you couldn't expect less with brothers.

"WELL, IF YOU CAN STILL MANAGE TO MAKE PUNS, THEN GETTING OUT OF BED BEFORE YOUR BREAKFAST IS SERVED SHOULD BE AN EASY TASK." Papyrus made his way to get up from his crouching position prompting you to do the same. "DON'T THINK THIS EXCUSES YOU FROM SENTRY DUTY, THOUGH. A VERY NOT-NICE HUMAN MIGHT FALL DOWN, SO WE MUST BE PREPARED! AFTER ALL, YOU CANNOT SPELL PREPARED WITHOUT SEVERAL LETTERS FROM MY NAME." He gasped. "SPEAKING OF PREPARED, I NEED TO REVISE OVER MY PUZZLE GUIDES! ONE CANNOT MAINTAIN THIS LEVEL OF GREATNESS WITHOUT PROPER REVISION OVER PROFESSIONAL PUZZLE KNOWLEDGE. NYEH-HEH-HEH!" He dashed out of the room, only to return with a final, "NYEH!" before scattering out once more. You couldn't quite pin it down, but there was something about that skeleton's energy that was inspiring. 

You brought your attention back to Sans who was sitting on the edge of his mattress with a faraway look in his eye sockets. It was eerie how calm he appeared despite the mildly petrified expression on his face and the prior events. But considering that he may be thinking of that instead of trying to calm himself down, you did your best to sound comforting as you could. "Sans." His head turned to you with alarming speed, but you did your best not to show it. "Is there anything you'd like on your pancakes? Maple syrup, butter, fruit?"

He appeared lost on the question, possibly not expecting it. "uh... maple syrup sounds good. lots of it. thanks." 

You gave him a final nod and encouraging smile as you slid past the bedroom door (without spotting a single source for the weird flames) and padded your way towards the stairs. While you tried to reign in your rushing thoughts, you noticed Chara also deep in thought. "Chara?" Like Sans, they snapped their head towards you. "Do you have any idea what would've caused a nightmare like that for Sans?" You rounded your way to the kitchen and dug out the ready-made pancake mix from the cupboard. You'd usually make the batter yourself, but you felt that you'd need the pancakes ready a little earlier than that.

You worked on auto-pilot while you studied Chara's expression. It was as if they had a good amount of certainty on what they were thinking about but were debating on sharing it or not. "I think I have a really good idea about what his nightmare might be. It might be scarily accurate too. But I don't think it's my story to tell." That was something you could respect, so you went about your business preparing the pan to a good heat and poured the batter for the first pancake.

In the middle of all of this, Papyrus had stumbled into the kitchen. "MY APOLOGIES IF ANY OF THIS IS FRIGHTENING TO YOU, HUMAN. IT'S BEEN SOME TIME SINCE HE HAS HAD ONE OF THESE FIGHT-NIGHTMARES, SO I DIDN'T THINK I'D HAVE TO WARN YOU ABOUT THEM."

It was easy to see his logic and reasoning. Except...

"Has he always had these?" Because if you thought about it now, weren't nightmares like this something associated with PTSD?

"WELL, NO. BUT..." He sighed again in a way that had you worried. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. HE WAS COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY FINE THE DAYS BEFORE. NOTHING BUT LAZY SNORES AND PEACEFUL DREAMS. THEN, ONE DAY, HE JUST STARTS HAVING THEM! THOSE DAYS WERE TROUBLING BECAUSE THEY WERE SO FREQUENT. WE HAD TO KEEP HIS DOOR UNLOCKED AND HE KEPT NAPPING EVERYWHERE HE COULD SINCE LONG NIGHT-TIME NAPS WERE IMPOSSIBLE. THEY WENT AWAY WITH TIME, BUT HIS NASTY HABIT OF CONSTANT NAPPING HAS STUCK." There was a moment of silence, and in that time, you had placed the first pancake on a plate and poured another. "I JUST WISHED THAT HE'D TRUST ME AND TELL ME WHAT THEY WERE ABOUT SO THAT I COULD HELP."

You could almost feel your heart breaking at the sadness you could hear in his voice. You had been both the withholding and withheld party involving these types of situations, so you put your utensil down to pass on to Papyrus what you'd learnt from those incidents. "I'm sure your brother trusts you, Papyrus. I've barely known the pair of you for a day, but I know that nothing can match the bond between you and Sans. You'd trust one another with anything, and that's what makes you amazing brothers. But even brothers have some things that they find difficult to share with one another, and with you two, it would have nothing to do with trust. Perhaps Sans believes that it's better that you don't know because he thinks it would cause you too much trouble, or maybe there's no point in telling you and doesn't want you getting involved. Maybe he thinks that it's something too much for you to handle or that it might hurt you if you knew, or it's too difficult for him to even speak about. Whatever his reasoning is, I know that he's doing it because he cares about you, Papy. He might open up one day, and if he doesn't, then you'll just have to remind him that you care, too. But he trusts and cares for you so much that he might be blind and oblivious to your own emotions and perspective. He may not know that he's hurting you, too." You quickly flipped the pancake before it started burning, then returned to your mini-lesson. "If you needed, you could organise some time to speak with Sans about these sort of feelings. Make sure he understands how you feel and try to understand what he thinks and feels. From there, the two of you can decide how you move forward."

The silence met after your words made you nervous, the sound of the pan the only thing breaking it. You could also swear that you could hear sniffling from the ghost beside you.

Were you too forward? Too invasive? Was what you said out of line? Where was the line? Oh god, did you screw up with Papyrus? Please say something, please sa-

Your breath was knocked out of you as you were embraced in another bone-crushing hug. "THANK YOU, HUMAN. THANK YOU FOR THOSE WISE AND KIND WORDS." To the fortune of your lungs, you were released. "I WILL MAKE IT MY UTMOST PRIORITY TO HEED YOUR ADVICE WHEN THE OPPORTUNE TIME PRESENTS ITSELF. HOWEVER, MY DUTY AS SENTRY TO ACHIEVE MY FUTURE ROYAL GUARD POST AWAITS!" He glanced upstairs towards Sans bedroom door. "PLEASE ALERT MY BROTHER AS TO WHERE I HAVE HEADED OFF. I WILL FORGIVE HIM FOR BEING LATE THIS TIME. EXERTING THAT MUCH MAGIC WOULD MAKE ANYONE A LITTLE PUFFY."

You chuckled as you put the pancake on the plate and poured another dollop of batter onto the pan. "You trust me to look after him for a few minutes and make sure he gets to his job?" You'd thought that maybe Papyrus would ask you to walk ahead since he'd want to make sure his brother was alright first. 

Apparently, he could also read your expression. "I KNOW THAT I SHOULD BE LOOKING AFTER MY BROTHER, BUT HE ALSO WON'T LIKE ME CODDLING HIM ALL THE TIME. HE'S A GROWN-UP, SO I KNOW THAT HE WON'T APPRECIATE BEING TREATED LIKE A BABY BONES BECAUSE OF SOME NIGHTMARE WHILE MAKING ME LATE TO MY OWN JOB. AS THE OLDER BROTHER, HE FEELS RESPONSIBLE FOR ME. HE DOESN'T LIKE IT WHEN IT HAS TO BE THE OTHER WAY AROUND."

You smiled and shook your head with disbelief. "Look at you, Paps," you said proudly. "I think you're wiser than people give you credit for." Truthfully, you didn't have a very good idea of what other people thought of Papyrus, but if people only ever saw the surface level Papyrus, then they must think that he's more naive than you'd come to know.

These skeleton brothers have a habit of being peculiar, you've realised. Because now you had deciphered that both hid a lot of what they truly knew. 

"NATURALLY, THE GREAT PAPYRUS MUST NOT REVEAL ALL OF HIS SECRETS. OTHERWISE, THE TRUE MYSTERY OF MY GREATNESS... WILL NO LONGER BE A MYSTERY!"

"Of course, Papy," you agreed. "Of course."

After some words about no longer stalling and a list of things that Papyrus wanted you to remind Sans about, he set off out the front door right when you heard a shy creak from upstairs.

Some footsteps clambering down wood followed, and you were relieved to see that Sans looked like his normal self when you poked your head out, almost no trace that he had been bothered in the dead of night. And, lucky him, his pancakes were ready as well. You took the plate from the table and lightly waved it around to show him that you had kept to his request to drown his pancakes in maple syrup. There was a big emphasis on 'light' since any further swirling would've resulted in the puddle on the plate tipping over onto the floor. Thankfully, you were met with, "couldn't be more perfect," easing any doubts that you'd used an excessive amount of maple syrup.

...Could he taste the pancakes and that amount of maple syrup? 

Questions could wait because you had your own stack of pancakes waiting for you and an interesting cup of tea (that you've regretfully had to microwave due to it getting colder than you'd appreciated your tea being). But, of course, neither your ghost, older skeleton, nor flower friend was free from questions. Why? Because you could see the relief cross Sans' face upon glimpsing the empty flowerpot while Chara's face dry of their previous tears stared at the pot and skeleton with a mixture of horror, disappointment and distress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notice the Handplates reference? It was accidental but I ended up typing it up. And where the hell did the motivational speech come from at the end? It was totally improvised, trust me, I don't plan out much of anything.
> 
> I've left the poll on [the official tumblr](https://bright-light-and-second-chances.tumblr.com/) open just so I might be able to confirm next chapter what I should make the reader prefer when it comes to the morning drink.
> 
> Also, how do you describe Gaster Blaster noises? I tried it as you can see with the borrowed described effect from the Unexpected Guests comic, but idk if it's alright and if I should stick with it.
> 
> Anyways, I know I've been a little Papyrus-focused recently, but that's for a few reasons. One: I believe that one of the things you need to do to get close to Sans is to first be close to Papyrus. Whether your interpretation of Sans is closer to canon or fanon, Papyrus is key to getting to know his character and being anywhere close to Sans in general. And two: Papyrus' character is so damn cool to write, and he sometimes doesn't get the justice that he deserves.
> 
> He's just. So damn cool.


	7. Stars in the Starry Ceiling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I spend too long just talking about what's happened instead of actually getting some dialogue or stuff happening? Because I notice that I do that stuff sometimes, so I'm a bit conscious of it.
> 
> Anyway
> 
> HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!!!!!! 
> 
> It's 2021! BEGONE 2020!!! (cuz you kinda sucked)
> 
> Feel free to bother me on [my tumblr.](http://that-obsessed-fangirl.tumblr.com/)
> 
> I don't know what else to say so... Time to meet a fishy friend
> 
> EDIT: I changed up the explanation for Sans' teleportation based on [this explanation I found on undertalethingem's blog.](https://undertalethingems.tumblr.com/post/639237928445526016/ditzydeviousdoodlebug-said-id-always-imagined) I might not be completely accurate since idk much abt physics but it's been done.

And once again, you found yourself amazed when time seemed to have just floated by. Time worth two weeks, to be precise, but that's only if your phone was correct. That would mean that you'd been in the Underground for around a month now. 'Bizarre' would be one way to describe those two weeks, at least in a mild manner. It was certainly a contrast to your regular life back on the surface, but you could say the same ever since you'd entered the Underground. 

For one, the already fragile companionship (for lack of a better word) existing between Sans and Flowey had started teetering on the edge of a cliff. Except that cliff was actually a deep chasm that nobody could see the bottom of, and no sound from any dropped rocks would help you indicate just how far down the ground was. So, in summary of this elaborate explanation, if something went bad, then the metaphorical 'something' that represented their relationship would go toppling down that edge without any chance of returning, and you would be caught in between them.

On the brighter side, things were going relatively well with Papyrus. Recalibrating his puzzles were easier than you expected since you were more or less offering suggestions from the side while Papyrus did all the work. Something about your vulnerable human body and magic and keeping a watch for dogs. There was likely more to what he meant than the given surface explanation, but you let it slide. You may have studied a bit about magic, but it never seemed to cross your mind, nor that of Flowey or Toriel's to teach you about how magic was incorporated into puzzles and traps. That pretty much meant that you were just feeding Papyrus fantastical ideas about more potential puzzles and traps.

You weren't sure what to feel about teaching Papyrus your method of cooking, though. You definitely knew what to say about them, however. Papyrus was seeing the results of your cooking and using what he observed and what you told him to make far more edible spaghetti. Whenever he cooked for the household, the spaghetti was less crunchy and there was no glitter appearing mysteriously in the sauce. It didn't stop him from using his own fists to make the pasta sauce, unfortunately, but you couldn't help but let him have his fun. You couldn't quite teach him how to make his own sauce seeing as you weren't brought up that way, but if he still sought to do it, you'd look up a few recipes on the Undernet and try to follow something along those lines. Maybe teach him how to use a knife while you were at it.

A knife... Heh. Well, at least he didn't have skin. He might injure himself somehow on accident, but at least there was no blood to make a mess of the kitchen. A wound for sure, but he was a monster, him being a skeleton having nothing to do with it. They don't really bleed unless it was some weird quirk upon their death (which was some very unsettling information you got from Flowey and became scarily curious as to how he may know that and if it was true in the first place). And you'd teach him carefully, as well. Heh, yeah, you'd be using knives, you have to be careful. Careful...

Sometimes, you found yourself despising being in the kitchen and cooking. That's only if you thought too much and were rushing yourself. But you forced yourself to get over it, calm down, and take things easy. You aren't back there, you don't need to be in a rush, there's no pressure, calm down.

Calm. Bright side. Calm.

To take your mind off of the older skeleton's incident two weeks ago, Sans purposefully brought you around to Grillby's to try the food and score you an informal job interview. Surprisingly, it had worked out quite well. And the food? You'd been to enough places that served burgers and fries to believe you had some decent judgement of what was a good burger and what was fake down to the very bun. Whether it was because the burger and fries were magic and dissolved down your throat or not, they were hands-down the best pair of burgers and fries you had ever had the pleasure of scoffing down your vacuum of a throat. And, on the plus side, you could visit the 'librarby' after work seeing as it was on the way to the house. 

Grillby had hired you with this calm joy that he radiated for a man made out of fire and presented you with a basic (and thankfully perfectly conservative) waitress uniform for you to begin your training the next day. Through those two weeks, you'd say that your job had gone quite smoothly. You mostly just served customers, cleaned up the tables and the respectful area when they left, and sometimes gave out some of the drinks at the bar. You never had to help out in the kitchen since it was all magic, so the only time you went inside was to grab the orders.

Toriel had called you a few times, as well. The first call was long, asking how each person had been, more so yourself. She asked if you were well looked after, if anyone had caused you trouble, if you were starving and needed another slice of her butterscotch-cinnamon pie, those types of things. It was a real motherly onslaught of questions, but it never annoyed you. Okay, well, maybe a little. You were a grown adult and you were faring just fine, there was no need to repeatedly ask the same question and repeatedly get the same answer. Yet you knew where she came from, and honestly, you've never had the same level of concern shown towards you. It's like you were being given what you never had in your childhood. It felt good.

At one point, you jokingly told her that you'd send a photo on your phone of the food you'd cooked each night so that she felt reassured that you were eating properly. "But, my child," she began, "how can it be possible? Cell phones do not have cameras attached to their body, as far as I am aware. And how would you send a photo with your phone? Photographs can only be sent as a physical image to another person, can they not?"

Now, your generation had a fun time making fun of boomers or honorary boomers for not being able to wrap their minds around or catch up to the modern age, especially when it came to technology. It was often to the extent where you felt sorry for the ones who were so technologically naive that they did not even know how to send an email. Some didn't know how to take selfies or a regular photo on their phone either. But a goat lady who wasn't even aware that technology had advanced to add cameras and an instant messaging system to their mobile phones? This was another sign of recognition of how loneliness and isolation had affected her, and for once, you felt this spark to do something. This _determination_ to try and connect her to the outside world again. At least to the rest of the Underground.

So, naturally, you asked Sans for help to do this, partly because he was really good friends with her, partly because he knew a lot about science that he still decided to keep to himself, but mostly because you didn't know how to go about the problem in the first place. You either bought her a new phone, which is something you could not do with the money you'd acquired at Grillby's just yet (and hey, you're human, who knows who might hate you), or you tried to add a camera and texting feature to her phone, something you could not possibly do since your engineering skills did not go beyond potato batteries and restarting laptops to make them work. 

Long story short, he teleported over to a friend, was back within a matter of seconds, and suddenly, her adoptive mother had a phone that could turn into a laptop, track snails, and be used as a fire extinguisher. Oh, and take photos and text. Yeah, those things were important, can't forget about those. You wonder who this friend of Sans' was, though, because those were some pretty cool upgrades. She'd have to learn how to use her phone for those things over time, and you could laugh quietly to yourself at what mayhem may accidentally happen with such a device.

So, due to some mustered bravery and curiosity planted by numerous of your new monster friends and Snowdin's lovely residents, you finally decided to roam beyond the winter wonderland and enter one of the Underground's most highly regarded places of scenery.

Waterfall.

From what you recall from reading Toriel's plant books, there was this one flower that only grew in Waterfall. It was named the echo flower, given its name for repeating the last thing it had ever heard. They were apparently a luminescent blue similar to the environment in Waterfall, and the bright colours on that page had constantly drawn you to want to see those flowers ever since. You just hadn't thought about it until recently.

Since Sans had a sentry station right next to the entrance of Waterfall, he offered to take you there via one of his little shortcuts. Thankfully, there had been no throwing up since the first time.

"Isn't this just teleporting?" you finally asked Sans once you had appeared next to a familiar-looking structure amongst the unfamiliar setting (somehow still covered in snow). 

He winked. "yes and no."

You placed the rather grateful Flowey on the ground as he stretched his roots to the ground. A small sigh escaped him. "You've given me so much more questions." You swivelled your backpack around and tucked the flowerpot safely inside before zipping it up and standing back up. A little _crack_ sounded from your legs which gave you momentary satisfaction - nothing like being surprisingly excited to use your legs after only walking back and forth between the same three places. 

Flowey rolled his eyes. "Believe me, the questions never end with this guy."

Sans' eye lights drifted over to Flowey when he spoke, but otherwise, he ignored his little comment. This was probably the most that the pair had progressed in a few days, so their relationship seemed to teeter a little closer to safe ground. "well, to people who watch it happen, it might look like teleporting, but i'm actually just bringing together the values of my space and the space i want to go to so that i get to that other space real quick."

You nodded along, and with what little you understood of physics, you tried to piece it together. "So, instead of walking from one destination to another, you're just bending spacetime to connect these two not-so-close destinations so that you can be in one place in one second, then be in another place the next." That had _nothing_ to do with the little physics you knew. Maybe it was all the fantasy stuff you read and watched.

"eh, more or less."

"And that's why it's called a shortcut. You're using a quicker way of getting somewhere by bringing that space closer to you."

"yup."

"I'm still calling it teleporting."

He shrugged as he sunk back into his sentry station. From beneath the bench, his skeletal hand retrieved a ketchup bottle and popped the cap off. "whatever floats your boat."

This was a new thing you had found out about Sans the same day that you had gone to get your impromptu interview: this skeleton liked drinking ketchup. "it started off as a gag to get a reaction out of new people, but then it kinda grew on me," he said that day. "and hey, since it's so annoying and magic-taxing summoning a tongue and it's not really needed for us skeletons all the time when you can just order the cheapest thing off the menu with no difference, using it to replenish yourself comes in real handy." You learnt a lot more than you intended that day, and it didn't really help when you started getting curious about what _else_ skeletons could summon.

Like, was it possible for them to summon a nose? Because you don't think they could smell out of the little holes in the middle of their skulls.

He gestured to his spot with the hand holding the bottle, although it was a lot like him asking for a refill at Grillby's. "i'll be here catching up on some overdue naps. you go off exploring, but don't wander too far. we don't wanna run into undyne just yet." Without hesitation, he took a big gulp from the bottle.

You, Flowey and Chara nodded, the latter of which speaking up. "I should be able to detect Undyne's magic as well. Her magic is really strong from what I know, so that might give me enough time to warn you and get you to hide somewhere." Their plan sounded viable to you. The further you could stay from Undyne, the better.

Sans stared at the gap between you and Flowey that the both of you were nodding at. "your ghost friend suggest something?" You relayed what Chara told you to Sans. "that's great. less danger, less problems, less work. i can live with that." He slouched back in his signature lazy pose and shooed you off. "go on ahead. ring me if you're too far to yell and can't hide. maybe get your flower friend to pop by and warn me if he doesn't have a misfired spear to his face. you might catch me when i'm awake."

You turned in the direction of a deeper maze of multiple shades of gorgeous blue, and you practically bouncing in excitement. "Tha--"

The skeleton you were about to thank was already fast asleep. "--nks..." How he did that, you never knew, but you silently wished that you could fall asleep that fast.

"Guess we're on our own," Flowey said, his fraudulent surprise obvious, although you expected nothing less the innumerous times you'd heard the tone whenever Sans was the subject of it.

Compared to the parts of the Underground that you'd been to, Waterfall wasn't as decorated with diverse and elaborate puzzles nor traps. It was a rather calm change, something that fit the serene atmosphere. The banter between Flowey and Chara didn't change, and actually became more entertaining when Flowey uttered an unholy screech when you used Bridge Seeds to read a useless sign. "Then who wasted their time putting this here anyway?!" Then he began to rant on about how this monster must've failed the puzzle themselves, so they decided to play a mean prank on everyone else who decided to go the same way. 

Then you entered the Wishing Room.

There were little glowing rocks and crystals on the ceiling in the previous areas of Waterfall, but something as different about these ones. These ones twinkled, perhaps a little cheekily, and if you squinted hard enough, they almost looked like cartoon stars blinking from a beautiful dark night sky. 

It made you nostalgic. It made you yearn for the real stars. 

The stars in the night sky were one of the few things that gave you comfort on the surface. Although they only were big balls of flames and gas in space floating who knows how far off, maybe even long dead, and could hardly be seen in places flooded with artificial light, there was something about them that always gave you peace. You could stare up into that sky for hours admiring its beauty and the way that those little white lights would draw you in. Thinking back to it, the stars had been one of the last things you'd thought to see before you jumped into Mt. Ebott. It was far away from the city, far enough that if you stood in a certain direction, you could block out how it forced the pure midnight into an unnatural half-day. And it was beautiful.

So seeing this room made you decide that this was a good point to stop. Not too far from Sans, and you wanted to spend some more time here. Letting out some pent-up crying energy also sounded good on your list too. Chara must've sensed your plan based on your emotional swing and getting to know you a little better over the course of time, because they eyed you with a look that said, 'Don't do it.' You hope that you sent a look that said, 'I'm going to do it and you're not gonna stop me,' but with your luck, you probably conveyed something like, 'I love water sausages.'

You walked up to one of the echo flowers in the room, and as you remember from the book, you touched its petals.

_"A long time ago, monsters would whisper their wishes to the stars in the sky. If you hoped with all your heart, your wish would come true. Now, all we have are these sparkling stones on the ceiling..."_

Your eyes turned downcast, realising how much you took the stars for granted. You never believed you'd be without it, yet here you are.

This monster was right, though. Even if Waterfall had its own natural and magical grandeur, it couldn't compare to the real thing. 

But hey, you were here to let out some emotions via being sad and crying. So, you walked over to another flower.

_"Thousands of people wishing together can't be wrong! The king will prove that."_

Right. The king. You'd been so holed up in your little snowy world that you forgot that there was also more people that wanted you dead. With your sad thoughts rushing through your mind, it wasn't hard for you to see why you'd prefer to be that way.

Chara tried pulling on your sleeve. "Hey, stop it." But, as expected, their hand went right through, and you kept walking forward to a pair of echo flowers.

_"C'mon, sis! Make a wish!"_

_"I wish my sister and I will see the real stars someday..."_

Hearing what must be two sisters, you suddenly thought of Chara and... Asriel, as well as Sans and Papyrus. Did they wish for the same thing? Did they want to see the stars too? Chara had to have seen the stars before for the most obvious reasons, but it's been years. Several hundred if you could remember anything from your home history lessons. You even went so far into that thought that you wondered if the two siblings had seen any stars the day that Chara passed away and Asriel took their soul to cross the barrier. But you doubt they did. With how Flowey stared at the ceiling with you, all of you now lying down (Flowey just tilting his head), he stared at it in longing and curiosity rather than in missing something he had seen before. Chara, meanwhile, were scrunching their eyebrows, as if trying to remember and compare what they were seeing to their memories.

"What do the stars... really look like?" Flowey asked, and for the first time since you had first met him, his voice had gone down to a softer, tender tone. If you didn't know that he didn't have a soul, you'd think that he sounded like any regular monster with emotion. The fact that he sounds like this meant a lot to you, and you managed a smile.

"When you stare up at the sky, they look like tiny white dots scattered across a milky smooth surface," you began. "The stars are clearer and much better when the sky is midnight blue to near pitch black, but that's not really possible in the cities or the suburbs." You outstretched a hand as if you were high-fiving the ceiling and waved it slowly from the left to the right. "The stars and the night sky go on for miles and miles, and a trail of stars often cascade across the sky in a way that makes me want to jump right up and chase it down. Escape all my worries." You pulled your arm back down and placed it behind your head, a sigh escaping your lips. It sounded funny saying it out loud. "You'd think it's scary, staring into the literal void of space and realising that you're just a speck on a speck floating across the universe. That if gravity suddenly decided to flip or vanish, you'd be floating into that void forever. But... It's calming. It's peaceful. It comforted me in a way that I needed the most - when I didn't have anyone else or couldn't handle other people." 

You flicked your eyes between each individual stone you could lay your eyes on, and compared it to the ceiling. If someone decided to take a photo of your face right now, you knew that they'd see the little twinkles of the blue stones reflected in your eyes. "This may not be the real thing, but if any place could try to replicate the stars and the feeling of a clear and peaceful night, then this place - the Wishing Room, the entirety of Waterfall - would pass."

Chara and Flowey had both listened raptly to your description-story hybrid, and you had to admit that when you replayed the words in your mind, it was difficult to come to terms with the fact that they'd all come out of your mouth. Where was that when you had to do public speaking? Nevertheless, those words were already weaved, and as you lapsed into a peaceful silence staring up at the Underground's gem-speckled ceiling, you could feel said words turning and churning in the minds of your two friends. 

From the corner of your eye, you saw the faint light of Chara's ghostly apparition face you. "You said that the stars are clearer when the sky is dark, but that it's not possible in the cities or, uh, suburbs. Why's that?" For a moment, you stared at them, confused. And then you realised something.

Like you'd clarified in your head, the legend of Asriel and Chara happened hundreds of years ago. If it was just over a hundred years ago, when the light bulb was invented, then you would be even more confused. But 'hundreds' was very clearly specified, so unless there was a very intelligent unpatented scientist who invented the light bulb before Thomas Edison, then Chara wouldn't have known what it was until it was made in the Underground. That would then lead to mean that they had no idea what it did to Earth's skies.

"Oh. Well, um, are either of you familiar with skyscrapers or big modern city landscapes?"

They both nodded, and Flowey was the first to speak. "A lot of human stuff falls into the dump. Some of those things are magazines and movies, and I've shown Chara too, so we know what they look like." That was good. If you tried to explain what they were, you knew that you'd fail miserably.

"Good, that's good. So, um, artificial light. It's great, helps us see more things in a big space than candles and lanterns. But when we end up using too much of it, especially putting too much of it in one space and lighting it up all at once, it has consequences. It's painfully obvious in cities because that's where all the light is usually grouped together. We've called it light pollution. With all of that concentrated artificial light, it makes the sky around it brighter and pale, and it washes away the light of the stars. If you actually look at a city from afar, it almost looks like they've created a dome of daytime around its boundaries." You paused for a moment, needing to gain control of yourself and give yourself a little time to breathe. Your mouth was actually a little dry; when was the last time you spoke this much? "Seeing as monsters really want to see the stars, once everyone is free, you could either create your own place with some sort of magical light that doesn't hurt the sky, or you could still live in the suburbs or city but go to some stargazing sight or observatory a little farther off."

You didn't quite know what to expect from a response like that. After all, it was a little blunt. And what would it be like to be told by another person that something you'd been hoping for was something that could so easily be taken away? So, with all that in mind, what you least expected was for Flowey to rest his head on your shoulder. "Hey, you sound like you won't be with us when that happens." Thinking about how you phrased your suggestion, you suppose that's what it sounded like. "Although I hate to admit it, it would be lonely if you left us once we get to the surface. You're actually really fun to be around, and I wouldn't get to see Chara as often."

Chara did their best to appear as if they had rested their hand on your shoulder. "He's right, _____. Although it took both of you to wake me, it's because of you that we could be together somehow. And take it from me: when the monsters accept you as their family, they will not let you off easy nor will they let you believe that you are not welcome with them." You took this chance to stare into their eyes, and you both maintained eye contact for some time. You could see their sincerity, and you knew that they meant what they said.

Yet as you did so, for once, you felt something else other than your own emotions. You'd always felt that Chara was there ever since they'd first risen from the ground, and these emotions that you were suddenly feeling felt like their presence. You felt their joy. You felt their sadness. You felt their anger, something they must've felt for the humans that they felt tore their monster family apart. But most of all, you felt the love that they still held for their family, the Dreemurrs. And for once, you felt like you could understand them. You could understand what they felt and why, and you could understand how much the Dreemurrs loved them. It was an intimate moment.

And a spike of fear broke through your fantasy.

"C-Chara?" You were so shaken by the sudden emotion that your hands had even started trembling, and it didn't matter that you had sat bolt upright so quickly. The sudden adrenaline cancelled whatever dizziness you should've been feeling. "What's wrong?"

They darted their head around them in disbelief. "She's here." Pinpointing the source of their troubles, they stopped and landed their eyes on a corridor that led to a dead-end. "Run. We have to run!"

Flowey was very much eager to do the same, but you didn't understand. "That's a dead-end. How's Undyne gonna get through there?"

Flowey yelled, "Magic, now come on!"

But before you could question it any further, a weird noise came from said dead-end. And the only thing you could see in the darkness of the doorway was a single glowing eye.

"Listen to me for once in your goddamn life and RUN!"

A blue spear materialised in an armoured hand, and you didn't think to hesitate again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll write more, I swear! This one didn't have much in it, I know. It's a lot like chapter 2, and I feel more confident with this type of stuff. I know I need to improve writing dialogue, and there will be way more really soon, I can promise that. I actually had a lot more planned for this chapter, but I write more than I give myself credit for, so I've pushed that over to the next chapter.
> 
> The next chapter has more action! More emotions! More violence? And do I perhaps smell the slow beginning of a romance in the next chapter too?
> 
> Welp! Better find out in the next chapter!
> 
> (I think I'm gonna edit this chapter when I look back at it again.)


	8. Something Smells Like Fish and Bones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To summarise what was here:  
> 1\. Thanks for the people showing my drafted fanfic idea support!  
> 2\. Will have to think up plausible headcanon for monster ages and monster ageing  
> 3\. uhhhhh, you guys rock, thx
> 
> Feel free to bother me [here.](https://that-obsessed-fangirl.tumblr.com/post/639696736547389440/forgot-to-tell-you-guys)
> 
> (Because you don't know, you might see another one of my *ahem*cringy*ahem* beginner digital drawings in progress that I totally didn't start just over an hour ago to replace my tumblr header.)

"HUMAN! Come back here!"

Despite the fear coursing through your body telling you to plant your feet to the ground and stand as still as a statue, you knew that that would be the worst idea you've had since you fell down. There was without a doubt that any threat yelled from that threatening helmet held to its promise of bite.

You skidded once you made it to the exit of the Wishing Room and used your hand to boost you out and back to the Bridge Seed puzzle room. Unfortunately, no matter how fast you ran, the clanking of armoured footsteps still drew closer.

Skidding to leap across the bridge seeds cost you time, but knowing you, you'd trip and fall into the water if you kept up at the same running speed. However, the laws of the puzzle seemingly didn't apply for Undyne, because from behind, a loud thud from two feet that shook the ground you stood on told you that she'd jumped across the whole thing in one go. 

That's when you knew you were doomed.

You were forced to a halt as a sharp tugging at your chest swivelled you around to face Undyne.

And situated right in front of your chest was a glowing green heart.

It wasn't in the shape of an actual human heart. No, this one was like those Valentine's heart-shaped chocolate boxes, a cartoon-like shape, except it was about as big as your palm. Even if you hadn't been taught or learnt about souls, you knew this green heart to be yours as you stared at its glow. This was you, your purest form, everything you've fought to conceal and hide out in the open. You knew what feeling vulnerable was like, but out of all your experiences, you knew that this was the most vulnerable state you could ever be.

But there was something worrying about it.

You knew, you _felt_ that the green of your soul was meant to be brighter, a little more full of life. However, yours was a little dimmer and more washed than what you believed it should be. And across your soul were several tiny cracks, the deepest being one that zigzagged its way straight down the middle. You knew with the most amount of surety that those were unquestionably _not good._ Only a second of knowing they were there made you realise why your soul was like that, and it trembled to match all the thoughts rushing through your mind.

"HAH! Your soul is already green!" she yelled. "Hmm, it does have a few cracks, though. DOESN'T MATTER! But I'll still make this fair." She tossed the spear in her hand in a way that allowed you to catch it, and even with your clumsiness, you couldn't miss this catch. With one hand, you caught the spear, and the thrumming of its magic gave a light buzz to your hand. For a moment, it grew a little stronger, and the spear became as thick as a pole. "You're gonna have to face danger head-on if you're that determined to FACE ME and get out of here ALIVE. But if you don't..." She lifted off her helmet, unveiling a set of sharp yellow teeth, a matching yellow eye with a black slit, an eye patch, and fiery red hair that fluttered in the non-existent wind. "You're not going to last a SECOND against ME!" Four spears slowly approached from four different directions, and you thankfully had the sense of mind to swivel yourself around and block them with the spear in your hand.

You tried moving your feet to get you out of the spot, but you could already feel that it was a losing game, and you knew that any further effort would result in excruciating pain. 

"What do you think you're achieving this way?" Another spear in hand, she suddenly stabbed it into the ground with a surprising amount of anger. "We've collected six human souls. Six. And we need seven to open the barrier. Do you understand what that MEANS?" You weren't sure what to say in response, but you couldn't do anything when you were forced to block another onslaught of spears. Thanks to Chara's assistance, you were a little quicker about where to turn. "That's right." She pointed another spear in her hand at you. "You're the one standing in the way of EVERYONE'S hopes and dreams! You are the LAST SOUL needed to set monsterkind FREE!" Another quicker set of spears came onto you, but this time, you weren't quick enough to block all of them, and two managed to pierce your soul.

The pain was like nothing you had ever felt before. Two sets of searing agony crashed over your entire body like your blood had been momentarily replaced with lava, and the shrillest, most tortured screams ripped through the air from your mouth. At the end of the attack, your breath was quick and short, barely taking in any breath after such excruciating pain. If it wasn't for the adrenaline coursing through your body right now, you'd have collapsed onto the floor and made the decision not to get back up. The fish monster actually looked concerned and muttered something confusedly that sounded like 'weak' and 'humans' and 'magical princesses.' You had no idea what link Undyne had that made her so interested in magical princesses, but you weren't so confident that you'd live to find out the answer. "Undyne, please! I don't want to fight you!" 

To your side, Chara hissed, "Flowey! Stop staring like an idiot and go get Sans. Now!" The flower in question, who was doing what you'd thought of before and was rooted (heh, 'rooted') to the ground, frantically nodded in response before vanishing through the ground.

"Sparing me won't do you any good, human," she retorted. "Your little goody-two-shoes-shtick won't work on me. Not like it did on Papyrus." Just as he said that name, she shook both her fists and stomped on the ground, sending another tremble through it once more along with another volley of spears. "MAN! I knew he was hiding something, but something like THIS?!" She scoffed. "You must think you're SOOO good, helping him out with his puzzles and giving him cooking lessons." In a mocking tone, she taunted, "'Oooh! I'm making all the difference helping out strangers and giving out happy little smiles and cute little compliments.' HAH! What a joke. The only way you'll do any good is if you're DEAD."

That last line hit hard. Harder than all of the spears you slowly lost the heart to block. You heard a small crack sound as the deep line down your soul grew deeper, almost on the brink of severing it completely. Your other cracks had grown bigger and joined up, the ones closest to the middle just that bit deeper. The spears that you hadn't blocked seemed to have been aimed at your body rather than your soul, because one big wound had been pierced in your thigh, your arms had long cuts that stained your long-sleeve shirt, you could feel a gash on the left side on your waist, and a small wound must've opened somewhere on your head because you could distinctly feel something thick that smelt of iron trickling down your face. And as you kneeled down in your spot with a weird numbness yet burning sensation in your legs, your dropped spear vanishing before it hit the ground, you hung your head and let the tears fall. 

She was right. You'd known all along, ever since you'd learnt about the barrier. But you were so caught up in this remarkable world that you'd forgotten about it. Put it to the back of your mind. Now it was painfully obvious.

You weren't any good alive. How could you deny these wonderful monsters the freedom they deserved? 

And you came here to die anyway, right? You had been inches away from death on multiple occasions, this one included, yet you kept fighting to live. 

How... weak. Indecisive and conflicted. Too scared to continue living, yet just as afraid of experiencing death.

You should let her take your soul. Let someone make that choice for you, like the coward you are. You'd be more useful that way, anyways. How did you deserve to live on when you could make the lives of hundreds, _thousands,_ so much better? You were a horrible person anyway. You may as well do something good with your life, even if that meant that you were meant to die.

"Then do it."

Undyne faltered in her steps. "W-What?" You never thought this tough, spear-wielding fish monster would ever sound so small, much less hesitate, but it was clear that she was shocked. Then again, you don't blame her.

Chara was hovering in your field of vision now, and even they were trying to make sense of what you'd just said. "_____, w-what are you doing?"

As best you could in your trembling voice, you repeated, "You heard me. Do it. Kill me." You'd lift your head up, but you couldn't bear to look her in the eye, nor Chara's. You even did your best to hide Chara from your peripheral vision with your hair since you knew that they understood where you were coming from. They could empathise. But you couldn't have that stop you from saying what you needed to say. "You said it yourself - I'd be more useful dead. A-And you're right." You shook your head as more tears spilled down your face. "I should've died when I fell into the Ruins. Made it easier for you guys. But I just suck at _dying_ for whatever reason." You began laughing maniacally, your hands clutching at your face, your hair, and your body shook with the force of it. You could tell without looking up at Chara and Undyne's faces that you looked absolutely crazy. You'd lost your mind. "Can't even get that right. Heh." Finally, you worked up the courage to look at Undyne. "So go ahead. I came here to die. I may as well fulfil my purpose." 

Stunned silence was what followed. It was so quiet that you could swear that Undyne was actually taking the time to think about it. You took a brief glance up and saw Undyne posing her spear, ready to make the final blow. You closed your eyes, at peace, and smiled. _Sorry, Papyrus. Toriel. Chara. Flowey. Sans. But I hope that you all get to live happily on the surface. That's all I want for you._

You waited.

And waited.

But the killer blow hadn't come.

...How?

Why?

"sorry, undyne, but i really can't have you poking holes through my friends."

Your head snapped up and was met with the back of Sans' blue jacket and black shorts. "and pap would be really sad to lose a friend who likes puzzles and cooking. so, uh, please put the spear down." You hung your head again and laughed to yourself; you really _did_ suck at dying. Something about your fate was forcing you to live.

"Sans." Undyne's gruff voice had a hint of surprise, but she was quick to compose herself. "Since when did you interfere in royal guard business? You spend ALL that time sleeping at your sentry station, instead of doing your JOB, and NOW you choose to DO SOMETHING? Fine. But for your information, THAT'S a human." She pointed to your kneeling figure behind the skeleton. "The last soul that we NEED to break the barrier. Don't you want to be free?" The desperation in her voice almost made you push Sans aside and let her finish the job, but now that the adrenaline had worn off, you were in no position to do more than lift your head as you moved from your kneeling position to barely sitting on the ground. 

Hands in his hoodie, Sans shrugged. "sure i do. but paps and i wouldn't want that at the cost of a friend. a good one. and besides, we could always wait for when another human comes down here. you don't need to kill the first one you see."

"But they're offering their soul WILLINGLY. They WANT to do this."

"is that so?" Sans turned to you, and you gave him a nod to indicate that Undyne was telling the truth. You forgot that your soul was still hovering in front of your chest, however, so when Sans' eye lights noticed the glow, he crouched down and inspected your soul. 

He never touched it and kept a respectful few inches distance from it when his hands hovered nearby. Though, as he continued to inspect it, a sudden chill wafted through the room as his eye lights completely disappeared. "did she do this?" There was nothing but an empty void in his eye sockets, and it made Undyne's threats and battle prowess seem like a tiny barking chihuahua.

You were still so shocked by his frightening change in demeanour that you weren't able to create a coherent thought, much less a sentence. "Wh-Wha... Wha-?"

"Did. She. Do this?"

His voice contained all of this constrained anger with such venom that you felt relieved that none of it was directed towards you.

This was the most serious you had ever seen the laid-back skeleton.

Your mind suddenly flashed back to the number that Sans had done to his room on your first night at Snowdin and the area of mystery you'd noticed surrounding him ever since. He hardly talked about himself lest it involved him being lazy, ketchup, puns and japes, or the number of times he'd snuck off to Grillby's. But whenever his night terrors were brought up, he'd avoid answering the question by giving vague answers or expertly swerving around the topic altogether.

Sans may have never let it on, but you had a feeling that if he felt like it was needed, he could put up a _real_ fight. Over the two weeks you had known him, you knew that he would never do something without good reason, or if there was no other choice. He was very apathetic that way. So for some reason, these factors, his protectiveness over you and the anger he must've had towards Undyne made you feel safe.

But you didn't want anything to happen to Undyne. And you felt like if you gave Sans too good a reason to protect you, then you'd have to pray that someone intervened before things got far worse.

"N-No, not really." 

"'not really'?" He seemed to be holding onto threads with his anger. 

"The cracks were already there when she pulled my soul out," you clarified. "Some, ah, words and thoughts just made it a little worse. Not sure how much of it was actually done by her attacks."

You didn't know how you could tell, but you could feel that he had calmed down the slightest bit. However, his stillness and the continued void in his eye sockets made you nervous that perhaps you said the wrong thing or you hadn't done enough to calm him down. His expression hardly changed even as he tucked your soul back into your body and your feeling of vulnerability instantly faded away.

Undyne was right - why was he being like this all of a sudden? Why was he so angry all of a sudden, and protective, and willing to put more into something instead of using words for a less violent alternative? Sure, your soul may have a few cracks in it and maybe you did have a few wounds, but you never guessed that Sans would react this way to something like that. Did he care about you that much? Or was he just doing this for Papyrus?

Just when you believed you'd all be standing there for eternity or Sans would finally attack, a flurry of hurried footsteps had made it to your side. 

"UNDYNE! SANS! HUMAN!" Papyrus had halted in his tracks right next to Sans, and despite his running, didn't seem out of breath. Could skeletons get out of breath? Either way, he was there, and it was with delayed comprehension that Flowey must've been the one to get Papyrus after he got Sans once you saw him pop out of the ground shivering from what you guessed was all the snow in Snowdin.

As if to confirm your theory, he let out one violent shudder. "Never doing that again. NEVER!" You raised an eyebrow at him, and his grumbling face had morphed into one of shock at your condition being worse than before, but he returned to his normal self quickly. "What? Do you wanna try explaining to a skeleton who doesn't know about what the royal guard REALLY does that one of his best friends is about to kill his other friend?" Sans was briefly disturbed by the reappearance of Flowey, but his eye sockets finally regained their eye lights once Papyrus had come into view. 

Papyrus turned to your practically limp body and gasped. "UNDYNE! I WAS IN SINCERE DISBELIEF WHEN I HAD HEARD FROM FLOWERY THAT YOU WERE TRYING TO KILL MY HUMAN FRIEND, BUT THIS REALLY CONFIRMS WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF." He knelt down beside you and did his best to calm you down by letting your head rest on his gloved hand. Unfortunately, his loud and booming presence wasn't doing the best on your ears. "THERE, THERE, _____. NOW, DO NOT BE AFRAID. I AM GOING TO USE MY HEALING MAGIC TO HEAL YOU. AS IT SHOULD. SANS, PLEASE HELP THEM SIT UP FOR THE TIME BEING." You could tell he was trying to lower his volume, though. Of course, he may just be unaware as to how loud he truly is. Regardless, you still had no doubt that he was capable of lowering his voice or whispering when needed.

The older skeleton came and knelt on your opposite side as he carefully snaked an arm around your back and kept his other hand softly on your shoulder. "this alright, kid? not touching any wounds, am i?" 

You gazed into the eye lights of your skeleton friend, and all of a sudden, it felt like the rest of the world had washed away.

You don't know why or how, but your mind had drifted to your talk between Chara and Flowey mere moments ago about the stars. 'You'd think it's scary,' you recall saying, 'staring into the literal void of space and realising that you're just a speck on a speck floating across the universe. That if gravity suddenly decided to flip or vanish, you'd be floating into that void forever. But... It's calming. It's peaceful. It comforted me in a way that I needed the most - when I didn't have anyone else or couldn't handle other people.' And when you saw those little balls of magic floating in the darkness, it gave you that same feeling. Although, in some ways, a little different.

It was so intriguing how a skeleton who appeared so threatening was now so tender and worried over touching a single open wound. But that never scared you, just as the void of space never did as you stared into his eye sockets. He calmed you and gave you peace. Perhaps it's why you found yourself relaxing in his hold. 

"No," you finally responded, "you're not touching any wounds. It's alright."

Just as Papyrus said, you saw a green glow being to emanate from his hands as he scanned over your body's physical wounds. "I APOLOGISE THAT I CANNOT ENTERTAIN YOU WITH MY GREEN BULLET PATTERNS, HUMAN," he input in an effort to sound optimistic. "BUT UNDYNE HAS TARGETED YOUR BODY RATHER THAN YOUR SOUL WITH HER MAGIC, SO I WILL HAVE TO HOLD OFF EXPENDING MY ENERGY TO CREATE BULLETS FOR TODAY." A few beads of sweat had developed on his skull. "ALTHOUGH, HUFF, I MUST SAY, PUFF, TREATING A MEATY HUMAN BODY IS, HUFF, QUITE THE WORKOUT COMPARED TO US MAGIC TYPES. NOTHING THE GREAT, HUFF, PAPYRUS CAN'T ACHIEVE, OF COURSE." 

Papyrus was right. When you looked at your body, all he was managing to do was slow down the bleeding. If you weren't injured in so many places and you weren't injured so severely, maybe he would've been able to pull off healing one wound completely. He wasn't having that luck today.

The usually flamboyant skeleton may have felt the same way, because he began unravelling his billowing red scarf around his neck. The beginning of the action alone left you stunned. "Papyrus? Why are you taking off your scarf?" Papyrus seldom wore anything else besides his battle body, and when he did, it was always accompanied by that beloved red garment. To see him take it off felt odd. It's like finally seeing your friend without their glasses on for the first time.

"WHY, I'M GOING TO USE IT TO BANDAGE YOUR MOST WORRISOME WOUND." Very gently, he began wrapping his scarf around your thigh, though no matter his gentleness, you couldn't help but wince at the contact with the fabric. "I MAY HAVE CEASED THE BLEEDING FOR NOW, BUT I FELT VERY UNCOMFORTABLE SEEING THIS WOUND AND ALL THE BLOOD THAT CAME WITH IT, SO I WILL NOT LIKE TO HEIGHTEN THE RISK OF IT BECOMING WORSE." Done wrapping your wound, he brought the two ends together and tightly secured them together with a professional knot. At your worst wince yet, Sans' nearest hand went to yours, and subconsciously, you had gripped it. Thankfully, the pain ebbed away, and Papyrus' hand soon joined Sans' arm on your back. "FRET NOT, DEAR HUMAN FRIEND. AS YOUR BESTEST FRIEND AND A MASTER CHEF WITH YOU AS MY APPRENTICE, I SHALL WHIP UP A BRAND NEW BATCH OF MY FAMOUS SPAGHETTI! WITH YOU GOBBLING UP MY MAGNIFICENT MEAL, YOU'LL BE FEELING NEARLY AS GREAT AS I AM IN NO TIME! OF COURSE, WITH ME, THAT IS A GIVEN. NYEH HEH HEH!"

Seeing Papyrus do his best to cheer you up by acting as he normally does made you smile. "It always is." You don't know why, but that place that you could now feel your soul rested pulsed with something that felt familiar. Not the part of you that Chara latched onto. No, that felt different. This was larger, something that, at your core, made up what is 'you.'

In your peripheral vision, you could see the armour-clad figure of the fearsome fish warrior press closer steadily. She appeared conflicted between worry, anger, guilt and disappointment. If you were to place yourself in her shoes, then you think that you could understand.

She wanted to keep her friends, make sure they were happy, yet at the same time, she had the future of all monsters situated in front of her, except in order to achieve that future, she'd have to risk losing her friends. However, she's already caused you enough damage already, and here her friends were, worrying over this person. She's worried that she'll lose her friends over this dispute, but angry at herself and her friends for standing in the way of monsterkind's hopes and dreams. She feels guilt for having hurt you so badly, yet disappointed that the future of the kingdom may be stripped away by those she holds dear, and disappointed that their softness and attachment is a large part of that reason. 

She doesn't know what to do. What to _feel._

So, even when you had three friends waiting to protect you with their magic while one hovered by your side ready for whatever they may need to do, you smiled at Undyne who was caught off-guard by your smile. Why was there no sign of terror? No fear, no disgust in your face? She had said such awful words to you, brought you right in front of death's door because of them. Her shocked and bewildered face said it for her: why are you smiling?

This feeling within you refused to believe that the malice that Undyne attacked you with was all she had. You refused to believe that Undyne was a soulless killer.

You were filled with kindness.

You continued smiling, and in a small whisper, you declared, "I forgive you."

And all went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Never ended up editing it after I finished, lol)
> 
> I know I'm writing a Sans/Reader story, but if you can't already tell, I low-key simp for Papyrus.
> 
> Just
> 
> Protecc 
> 
> The skelly
> 
> Also
> 
> [My tumblr](https://that-obsessed-fangirl.tumblr.com/post/639696736547389440/forgot-to-tell-you-guys)


	9. Worries and Beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (EDIT: I accidentally published this a day early, but I guess that for the sake of hitting 2k, I'll make an exception, so I've updated the date so that it appears as published today.
> 
> ALSO, IMPORTANT! My update schedule might shift to every 2 weeks instead of every week since I've got school and homework I need to worry about. Please bear with me!)
> 
> This is the only chapter where I will put any such warning because I can understand being squeamish.
> 
> Needles. Sewing. Bad wounds from previous chapter. You should get what I'm saying.
> 
> Stitches. Which means uncomfortable talk. And slight needle talk. With a clueless monster. Who doesn't really know about it. Because he has no skin.
> 
> ...
> 
> Fun! (I had to write this so I don't think you wanna sit at your laptop typing away at it while you picture it in your head.)
> 
> Expect the writing to be a bit different since I planned the dialogue first instead of writing from the rough plan. Means more dialogue rather than descriptions.
> 
> Here's [my tumblr.](https://that-obsessed-fangirl.tumblr.com/)

_This bed is so comfy. Don't wanna get up. Probably couldn't get up anyway, it's so hard._

_..._

_Welp. Not like that hasn't been every other day for the past few years of my life._

These were the first thoughts that crossed your mind as soon as you registered that you were conscious. 

The next thing you registered was the pain.

Your head ached like no other headache you had ever experienced before, and your arms were so numb yet so heavy that you felt like any attempt to move them would result in excruciating pain. Your waist felt just the same, so you felt like if you were even going to sit up, you'd have to have a dead-straight back while you did so, and even then, it would still sting. The wound on your thigh was not on the inner area, thank goodness, but it was across your good leg and it was sensitive nonetheless. 

When you finally blinked your eyes open, you found that you'd been laying in Papyrus' ever treasured racecar bed. And seated next to you was not entirely the skeleton you expected, but you needed him there nonetheless.

"hey," he greeted when he noticed your eyes directed at him.

It took almost all your effort to get one word out. "Hey." Your voice was a little croaky, but it wasn't something that a little throat clearing couldn't do.

You slowly sat up as Sans leaned over to position the pillows so you could comfortably lay back. You nodded at him in thanks before darting your eyes around the room and watching as Chara and Flowey played with Papyrus' action figures. To move the figures, Chara had resorted to shuffling their legs forward while Flowey decided to have some fun and dangle them like puppets before putting them back into place. It looked like they were creating a battlefield scenario with how uniformly the figurines were stationed. How either of those children even knew any battle strategy was beyond you.

In the middle of scanning the room, an odd striking white caught the corner of your eye, and when you looked down at your arms, you were mildly surprised to find that they were wrapped in your typical medical bandages. They shook for a moment when you realised that whoever had wrapped them up had to see your scars and, _'Oh god, not sure I can talk about this, I really can't, oh no.'_ It's when you registered these bandages that you finally recognised the one on your head and what felt like bandages wrapped around your other injuries. You thought that they were clothes or the blanket when you'd woken up, and you very nearly smacked yourself for not thinking the obvious. Those thoughts aside, you still stared at them with confusion and mild fear. Who put them there? Were they that bad? Oh god, how long have I been like this for?

"alphys patched you up." You snapped your head in his direction, and he just managed to finish with, "and you've only been here for a few hours, don't worry."

You were afraid of something like this, and as you stared at Sans, he must've realised this too. "W-who?"

"she's the royal scientist down here," he clarified. "given that we don't have many monsters working in the science field, much less in biology, the royal scientist doubles as a doctor of sorts. means that they've got all sorts of books and supplies scattered somewhere."

The fact that she sounded like a qualified doctor eased you. If you were kept to your thoughts, you would've made the assumption that Papyrus had wrapped you in these bandages, and the thought that she might've seen your scars terrifies you.

Of course, you were curious as to what this doctor was like, yet it was made blatantly obvious by your eyes that she was not present in the room. "Where is she?" Maybe she was downstairs?

Sans only gave his signature shrug. "she ran out to get some stuff she said that would heal really big human wounds." With his left hand, he gave a small scratch to his skull. "couldn't really tell you what she's getting, though. i don't know the first thing about human wounds." You both laughed quietly to yourself since you both knew that he lacked all the muscles, organs and glands to know such things.

However, your mind was directed to larger things at hand when it pointed out a detail in what Sans had said. Where the bandages were, you could feel a pleasant thrumming coursing through that part of your body, something you could only guess to be healing magic. So why does this Dr. Alphys need to find something for big 'human' wounds? "Healing magic doesn't do enough?"

"hmm." Sans pressed his skull down onto his poised hand in thought. "i'll give you a brief rundown. like you've already noticed, these bandages have healing magic in them. they heal things over time, which comes in super useful for monsters who've lost a lot of HP and need more than food to get back to max health. the good news is that, thanks to your sleeping, you're at your max HP."

"And the bad news?" Because if there was anything that you knew, it's that there was usually bad news that came with good news, especially when it came to injuries.

The skeleton playfully poked your cheek. "you're too squishy. these bandages were made for monsters with magical bodies, not humans who have a lot more 'stuff.'" If you hadn't gotten lessons from Flowey and Toriel about the difference between monster and human bodies, you'd be way more lost. "so some of your very much physical wounds are making it hard to keep your HP at max. they're THAT bad. namely, boo-boo number one," he said as he pointed to your waist, "and boo-boo number two," he finished as he pointed at your thigh. "they more or less act like regular bandages to you. you wouldn't have needed them if only your soul had been attacked, but undyne must've been afraid of cracking it before she got to take it at all." His voice had turned angry near the end, yet you mostly processed what he thought about Undyne. It would make sense, but you smiled as it also gave you the hope that somewhere deep down in her being, Undyne could find it in her to care for you, even if you stood in the way of monsterkind's freedom.

Sans was quick to swerve back on topic. "the wounds on your head and arms aren't too bad, so magic will fix those just fine, but your other ones are just too much. too many physical things. so that's where alph is now, probably searching through the dump or making something from the sounds of it." The fact that she has to search through a dump to get anything good makes your heart ache for the monsters once more, and your eyes scrunch up. If having their freedom taken away wasn't bad enough, they were also forced to live off of the scraps of mankind.

You sighed defeatedly. "Did she mention what she was getting?"

"not really, but she said something about making magical thread and tools."

It didn't take much to make the connection between 'thread' and 'deep wound.' However, you couldn't help but sigh rather than be afraid forever. "I'm gonna have to get stitches," you said, resigning yourself to your fate. It was bound to happen.

At that word, you watched as Chara's ghostly image flickered, their version of shivering at the idea, while your flower friend had jolted his head up. He didn't seem to have comprehended what you said, though, as he looked like he was sifting through his memory for why he reacted so shocked. Meanwhile, your earlier confusion had transferred to Sans. "if she was worried about your clothes, i'd think she'd look for regular thread instead of making some herself and ask someone else to do the work. hey, that's what i'd do."

Flowey must've finally found the memory, because you heard him mutter, "I remember reading this in a book once." And you could practically hear how the realisation had dawned on him. "Oh no."

You nodded. "Yep, you've got the idea. You see, Sans, humans do these things called stitches to keep deep wounds together so that it heals back properly." You poked his arm bone a lot like he'd poked you earlier despite his current void-like eye sockets. "Since we're so squishy and stuff while you're over here as just bones."

Even with your light tap, he sat so still that you could've almost mistaken him for an atanomically incorrect human skeleton wearing clothes. "so that involves...?" He made several wavy hand movements that sporadically stopped and started until he couldn't make sense of what he was doing. 

At least he gave you enough to get something coherent. "Putting it through my skin?" You nodded. "Yep. Alphys is gonna be here patching up my skin with a needle-tipped thread." That's what you knew about these threads, anyway. But in the back of your mind, you wondered if this magical thread Alphys was going to make was going to have the same healing magic as the bandages and would dissolve over time.

The lights had returned to Sans' eye sockets once more, yet he still appeared significantly worried. The slight sweat on his skull and worried brow bones were clear indicators. "...there's something to ease the pain, right?" 

Flowey nodded up. "Yeah, you're meant to be knocked out with some injection, aren't you?" Sans eyed the flower in suspicion, no doubt wondering how he could say something with such certainty, and Flowey was doing his best not to shrivel under his gaze.

Ah. This was another one of those times where you were meant to save him, weren't you? "Both of those are used methods, although I think that last one is normally used for big wounds and longer operations nowadays." You fiddled with the blanket in your two hands, being careful not to move your arms as much. "You think Alphys might bring some magical sedative with her? Maybe some magic sleeping pill? I honestly wouldn't blame her if she gave me drugged tea." You'd much prefer the last two options. Although you weren't really afraid of needles after several vaccinations, watching it sink in and do its thing made you queasy and perhaps a little more afriad. Just the thought alone made a familiar spot on your upper arm throb.

"for your sake," Sans began, "i hope she's read enough about humans and has thought about any of those options."

Real reassuring, buddy.

Flowey scoffed. "Oh, please. What monster would keep a book about human medicine lying around when it's completely useless?" Unfortunately for him, no one in that room seemed to believe what Flowey was saying since you all gave him the same discreet look. From the tone in his voice, it was as if he was trying to defend himself rather than make a logical point.

But you could think of one monster that would keep a human medicine book if they came across one.

Because for a brief moment, your mind thought of white fur, royal purple, and butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

Chara floated to your bedside, a more than mocking grin on their face. "I could always force emotional exhaustion onto you so you could sleep. Your wounds would do the rest." If it wasn't a friend making it a suggestion, you'd think that they'd mean it. Yet as you'd grown to realise, some friends just said some things in good fun without any real intention. 

You shook your head. "I think it might've been easier if I had stayed unconscious." So much easier. It would be a lot easier if you didn't wake up, too...

You remembered why you were there in the first place, and in quick recollection of a peculiar detail, your eyes darted to the skeleton next to your bed. "Sans?"

"yeah, bud?"

"Why did you act that way when you saw my soul?"

Your direct approach caught him off-guard, but you weren't going to be subtle any longer. As much as you wanted to be considerate of how you worded your sentences so as not to shock someone, it would never work if you talked with Sans. "wow. you, uh, really don't beat around the bush."

"I mean it, Sans."

"i do, too."

You groaned. "Come on. Why did you act that way?"

"act what way?" he dodged.

"Oh, you know," you said exasperatedly. "You became extremely protective of me all of a sudden and you were suddenly very serious instead of joking around and trying to talk Undyne out of the situation, something I would've guessed you'd do. You... You were actually a little scary back there. The only ounce of reassurance I got was knowing that it wasn't directed at me, but knowing what you could do to your room while semi-conscious didn't make me feel calm about who the receiver was going to be."

You were met with radio silence.

Just the sound (or lack of sound) alone made you nearly drop the topic.

Nearly.

But this wasn't something you could let go. "You may be able to wriggle out of topics really easily, and don't think I didn't notice that you tried to do that not even a minute ago. But I'm not sure you can avoid this one, not this time. After all, I won't be the only one asking." And it was the truth. Flowey would be bugging his way into Sans' skull that would irritate the skeleton to no end, Papyrus, as his brother, would want to know why Sans acted differently to his usual self, and Undyne, who had engaged in the topic at first, was not going to settle for the explanation that he tried to give.

His body moved like a human would take a deep breath before speaking. "it's... hard to describe." You could understand that. It sometimes took you multiple tries to string together one sentence.

You still weren't going to let that deter you. "I think I have the time."

He sounded ready to fight back, to use another line to move himself away from the situation. But eventually, he sighed. "okay, okay." You wondered if it was because he decided that this would be easier and thus lazier than coming up with a cop-out. "um... how do i put this?" He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking again. "the days down here often feel like they're repeating themselves. heh." He gave a side-glance to Flowey who flashed from grumpy to guilty. "and i'd lost hope thinking that anything would change. that we'd be stuck down here reliving the same things over and over. eventually, it got pretty easy to give up, and everything about my life besides papyrus followed down the same path. then you came along. after so long of waiting, after inching by each and every day thinking that there'd never be an end, you sprung up and changed our lives. you began to mean a lot to us, too. so, when i saw you just kneeling there like that, i didn't just wanna stand by and watch it. for once in my life, i didn't wanna do nothing. you mean a lot to... to us. it wasn't something i could just brush off. that's why."

"... I have the distinct feeling that there's more to it than that, but you probably don't want to tell me right now."

"yup, that sums that up."

Alright, you guess you could let him off there. At least this time, he acknowledged straight up that there was something he didn't want to talk about and revealed part of the truth.

You decide to divert the topic and give Sans some time to relax. This time, you turned your attention towards Flowey. "Does mom know about this?"

Chara and Sans followed your lead and turned their heads towards Flowey, Sans sighing in relief at no longer being interrogated. "I, uh, wanted to know what was happening. You know, curious how things would play out. I wasn't actually worried or anything."

That was enough for you.

You hummed. When it comes to Toriel, what would be the best course of action? "I should probably get my phone, then. If she's texted or called me, she'll be wondering why I haven't answered. And if I stay silent, she'll still be worried. I may as well tell her myself." Toriel is the lonely type. And with how frequently she checks up on you, you know that she'll freak out if she doesn't get a good explanation out of you.

"i can't imagine that she'd be exactly ecstatic with that news," Sans commented.

You gave him a shrug of your own, although you had to hide a wince when that sent a small sting up your arm. "Better than telling her nothing. Either way, the outcome will be some form of bad, so I may as well go with the rational option." 

Sans didn't seem like he was going to try disagreeing with you, but both of you also knew that you weren't going to be the one to get it. Not even you could disagree with him if he told you that you weren't in any fit shape to be standing up. He turned to the table and took note of the potted plant and the slow inching movement of one of the figurines. The sigh that followed emulated the one you'd made when you realised you needed to get stitches. "i'll go fetch it for you. it should be downstairs with your bag."

Overdramatic much?

Sans walked up and the door a crack, but he instantly froze in his spot. Curious, you all stopped what you were doing and caught onto the voices of a heated conversation. You were going to beat yourself up later about eavesdropping, and you knew it, no matter what anyone said. But in the moment, you couldn't help but tune your ears (yours and Chara's being the only existing ones) into the conversation as well.

"Papyrus," Undyne's raspy voice started. "You know that it's the DUTY of the royal guard to capture humans and present them to Asgore. Why are you STANDING IN THE WAY of FINALLY becoming a royal guardsman? Isn't that your DREAM?! That BURNING PASSION inside you? We're FINALLY going to be FREE, Papyrus! We can break the barrier. Why are you standing in the way of that?"

"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT MY FRIEND TO GET HURT! I DON'T WANT THEM TO D... I DON'T WANT THEM TO DIE. THIS IS NOT WHAT I ENVISIONED THE ROYAL GUARD TO BE."

Papyrus' resolve in the conversation left you feeling proud, and in your head, you had begun rooting for him.

"We have to hunt down humans, capture them, and send them to Asgore so that he can take their soul. WHAT were you expecting?"

"I WAS EXPECTING THAT WE WOULD BE HELPING FELLOW MONSTERS IN NEED! THAT WE WOULD DO NO HARM TO THE INNOCENT. THE HUMAN FALLS UNDER SUCH A CATEGORY! THEY HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT KIND TO ME AND THE MONSTERS OF SNOWDIN. AS FAR AS I CAN SEE, SHE HAS DONE NO WRONG. AND OF COURSE, I ALSO EXPECTED THE POPULARITY, FAME AND GLORY THAT COMES WITH BEING A ROYAL GUARDSMAN, REPRESENTING THE HOPES AND DREAMS OF MONSTERKIND, BUT I WANT NO SUCH PART IN IT IF IT MEANS TAKING THE LIFE OF ANOTHER."

"This is EXACTLY why I couldn't let you in the royal guard, Paps. You're great and you're strong. Man, even HELLA TOUGH!"

"THANK YOU!"

"But if you faced an enemy that had the intent to kill, there's NO WAY you could've won against then if you didn't feel the same. I... You have to understand that I don't want you to get hurt. If I sent you into battle knowing you weren't ready to face that type of enemy and... something bad happened to you... I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. And Sans sure as hell wouldn't."

You stared at Sans who had already hung his head. That was all the answers you needed.

"PLEASE DO NOT FEEL AS IF YOU WOULD HAVE TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY OF MY ACTIONS. HOWEVER, I CANNOT PROMISE THAT SANS WILL CARE, MY FAULT OR NOT. IN THE END, IT IS HIS CHOICE TO ACT AS HE DOES, EVEN IF THAT IS TO BE LAZY AND EAT GREASY FOOD DESPITE MY ADVICE AND ENCOURAGEMENT. BUT, BY EXTENSION, THAT MEANS THAT IT IS MY CHOICE TO ACT AS I DO AS WELL. BESIDES, I WOULD VERY LIKELY BE IN THE FRONT LINES DESPITE NOT BEING PART OF THE ROYAL GUARD. AFTER ALL, I HAVE WORKED DILIGENTLY DAY AND NIGHT LIKE A ROYAL GUARD TO PROVE MYSELF. I AM PRACTICALLY ALREADY A ROYAL GUARD!"

"FUHUHUHUH! You really put in a hundred, no, A THOUSAND per-cent into your sentry duty."

"YOU COULD EVEN SAY THAT I'VE WORKED MYSELF... 'DOWN TO THE BONE.'"

Three out of the four of you quietly laughed at his joke, and you could see a proud glint make it into Sans' eye sockets as well. Downstairs, though, the laughter was awkward, and the pause that followed equally so.

"I WILL ADMIT THAT I AM MILDLY WOUNDED THAT YOU NEVER THOUGHT TO TELL ME ANY OF THIS SOONER. I'M YOUR FRIEND, UNDYNE. NO MATTER WHAT YOU AND OTHER MONSTERS MAY THINK OF ME, I AM CAPABLE OF HANDLING THESE SORTS OF THINGS. YOU CAN TRUST ME. YET... I CAN ALSO UNDERSTAND WHY YOU NEVER TOLD ME. YOU ADMIRE THIS, ER, 'BURNING PASSION' IN MONSTERS. FRANKLY, I DON'T QUITE KNOW WHAT HEAT OR BURNING FEELS LIKE. BUT! YOU MUST NOT HAVE WANTED TO TARNISH THIS DREAM OF MINE. ALL THIS HAPPINESS AND OPTIMISM. I KNOW THAT MONSTERS HAVE BEEN LOSING MORE HOPE OVER THE YEARS, SO YOU MUST HAVE WANTED TO KEEP THIS METAPHORICAL FLAME BURNING INSIDE ME. AND IT IS QUITE THE GREAT METAPHORICAL FLAME AS WELL!"

"I don't know how or why, but you're pretty good at being serious. And at reading me."

You raised an eyebrow at Sans at that last part, and, as usual, he shrugged. His grin continued to give away his pride, though.

"OF COURSE I AM! THE GREAT PAPYRUS MUST BE PREPARED FOR ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING CIRCUMSTANCES THAT ARE NO LAUGHING MATTER. I AM A GROWN SKELETON, AND ALTHOUGH I NEVER ALWAYS SHOW IT, I DO TAKE MANY THINGS INCREDIBLY SERIOUSLY." He paused in a bit that sounded like he was going to whisper, but you weren't sure how big of an effort he was making to do so. "ALSO, DON'T TELL THE HUMAN THIS, BUT _YOU_ ARE MY BEST FRIEND." His voice returned to normal. "NATURALLY, THAT MEANS THAT I KNOW LOTS ABOUT YOU!"

You were about to believe that Undyne would reply with another one of her passionate remarks. Except what followed was a familiar defeated sigh. "Honestly, Papyrus, I don't know how you're still talking to me." The guilt and surrender in her voice sounded so unlike her. She was bursting with energy and passion not even a minute ago. Now she sounded like the weight of the world was crushing her. "I nearly killed one of your friends, Sans hasn't really stopped giving me this weird stink eye, and whether you can accept it or not, I've basically shattered your dream, the one thing you put your soul into. You stayed in front of my house a whole night just to get in, for Asgore's sake!"

"WELL... I LIKE TO THINK THAT ANYONE CAN BE A GOOD PERSON IF THEY JUST TRY. AND I ALREADY KNOW YOU'RE A GOOD PERSON. SO! SINCE YOU SOUND GUILTY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE AND YOU ARE SITTING HERE IN MY HOUSE WAITING FOR THE HUMAN TO WAKE, THEN I KNOW THAT YOU'RE ON THE PATH ON BECOMING AN EVEN BETTER PERSON! AND BECAUSE THE HUMAN FORGAVE YOU, THEY MUST THINK JUST AS I DO. YOU DESERVE A SECOND CHANCE."

"You guys must really as similar if you guys can forgive me THAT easily."

"GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE, IS WHAT THEY SAY! ALTHOUGH, I'M SURE THAT MINE IS GREATER."

"You don't even have a brain, Paps."

"I KNOW!"

"Then again, neither do I. Or any monster, for that fact."

"YES!"

A pregnant pause followed. Before...

"WE'RE ALL A BUNCH OF NUMBSKULLS!" Undyne yelled.

"I'M PRETTY SURE THAT SANS AND I ARE THE ONLY ONES THAT HAVE SKULLS, UNDYNE."

"Doesn't change that we LITERALLY don't have anything in our heads but magic."

"VERY TRUE! BUT IF OUR MAGIC IS US, THEN... WE JUST HAVE A LOT OF 'US' IN OUR HEADS?"

"GAHHH!!! All of this NERD stuff is making my head hurt!"

"SO, WE'RE HURTING OURSELVES? ON ACCIDENT?"

"Oh, I'll show you HURT!"

"UNDYNE! QUIT NOOGYING THE SKELETON!"

Everything sounded like they'd returned back to their loud and rambunctious normal, and you smiled as everyone in the room visibly relaxed. Sans looked the most relaxed that he'd ever been since his sudden appearance some hours ago, and you waved when he gestured that he'd finally be going to retrieve your phone.

Maybe things were going to be alright.

But when the door opened a few minutes later, the skeleton you expected and the other skeleton that was lesser expected followed by a blue fish monster that was _least_ expected was accompanied by a short monster with a spiky yellow head, glasses perched in the middle, and a long yellow tail with a body donning an average lab coat. This monster brought their hands together nervously, and their eyes flitted between your eyes and back at their clawed hands as if they were constantly trying to maintain eye contact but failing. "H-hi there! I'm D-D-Dr. Alphys. Um, I, uh, I-I'm here t-to... Oh, why do I..."

Instead of trying to explain, she reached into her pocket and retrieved her phone, swiped notifications off the screen, then did some scrolling and tapping before a holographic ten-square storage bookshelf hovered from a light source at the top of her phone. From one square, she withdrew a shiny roll of metal string, and from the second square...

She retrieved a small needle.

"DR. ALPHYS, WHY DO YOU HAVE THIS METAL STRING AND POINTY OBJECT? IS THE HUMAN REALLY SICK? ARE THEY GOING TO NEED TO REPLACE THEIR HUMAN BODY AND BECOME A ROBOT CELEBRITY INSTEAD?"

"No way. You'd need WAY more metal than THAT. _I_ think that we're gonna turn this human into a FIERCE WHIP-WIELDING MAGICAL PRINCESS! And we'll be using THIS SHARP THING-A-MA-BOB to PUMP THEM with EPIC magical superpowers! U-uh, r-right, Alphys?"

"either way, i don't think you two should stay here. maybe stay downstairs like alphys recommended."

"BUT IF _____ REALLY IS GOING TO BECOME A FIERCE WHIP-WIELDING MAGICAL PRINCESS, WE HAVE TO BE HERE TO WITNESS THEIR TRANSFORMATION!"

"I think it'll blind you weebs before it gets to the end." 

A little shock crossed over Alphys' face as she finally noticed Flowey. "Wha..? You..."

"WHAT did you call us, you OVERGROWN weed?!?"

A wave of deja vu flooded over you as you glanced at Chara and found them sporting the same half-hearted amusement trying to mask their worry. Because, as you observed the scene around you, the only thing that came to your mind was, _'FUUUUUU--'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2k hits already? I wasn't celebrating 1k hits that long ago, but here we are now. I'm just glad to see that people are reading this fic and finding some sort of joy in it (even though it's built on negative feelings? Society, amiright?). 
> 
> Please don't feel afraid to comment btw. I've replied to numerous people saying how encouraging that is, and if you ever end up writing smth yourself, you'll see what that's like. Being recognised for your work in any way just kinda lifts your spirits, you know?
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys found this little change in writing alright. From now on, I'll probably be planning dialogue so we don't end up with thousand-word long descriptions.
> 
> Again, [my tumblr.](https://that-obsessed-fangirl.tumblr.com/)


	10. Feelings, Oh No!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 10 chapter milestone! Woo! Fireworks. BAM. (So sorry that this is a day late, but will you feel better if I tell you that it's 5k words? Longest chapter, bois.)
> 
> You guys have no idea how excited I am to start publishing the next fic. I'd publish the beginning now if I could, but I don't think I could handle two fics at once in my final year of high school. Still, it'll be worth it. It's properly planned, and from the support the summary has gotten, I really hope that you guys and others will like it.
> 
> Feel free to go to [my tumblr](https://that-obsessed-fangirl.tumblr.com/post/640817695905005568/planning-for-new-fanfic) and stuff to see what's happening with that and the rest of the fic. And hey, feel free to comment or ask me anything! Here and on my tumblr. I'll answer anything.

The next time you woke up was thankfully less painful, although you had to wonder for a moment why your leg felt so light. Cracking your eyes open, you saw that your leg had been slightly elevated by a few pillows which would explain the feather-lightness and sudden urge to just keep it there for eternity. You recalled seeing something along these lines in films in which the main characters or others had their legs lifted up in a sling if it had been injured. Setting up a temporary sling in Papyrus' bedroom of all things and on such short notice may not have been the best idea, so this was definitely the next best thing. You simply shrugged off the medical explanation and believed that Dr. Alphys knew what she was doing. Somehow.

Chara, who was floating beside you, did nothing more than point to your direct left. On Papyrus' bed frame was a little yellow sticky note. Tilting your head to read its scrawl, the cutesy handwriting read:

_Pls move toes, ankle and knee every few mins if possible_

_Reduces blood clot risk + encourages blood circulation_

"That's right, leg," you whispered to yourself as you directed a stern glare at your injured limb. "You heard the note. It's time to do some moving in bed. Doctor's orders!"

Flowey, who was seated in his pot above the note, asked, "Do you always talk to yourself?" It was true that on occasion, even with Flowey and Chara around, you did tend to talk to yourself.

Instead of taking it in shame (like you usually did in your past), you smirked. "Like you probably haven't done that as well," you retorted.

Chara stifled a laugh with a snort, Flowey's defeated face revealing everything.

For the next few minutes, you proceeded to slowly rotate your foot and wiggle your toes, occasionally doing the minimum of raising the bottom half of your leg up and down to get some knee action. You didn't do it as often, though, as the dull stinging in your thigh discouraged that movement.

The two friends promptly decided to break the silence by discussing how uncomfortable and disturbing it was having to be in the same room while you were getting your stitches. It was an inevitable experience for Chara whose only option would've been to turn away or float through to the hallway outside. Then again, what more could they have done? They still felt a hint of your own pain though you were unconscious, and the uncomfortable reminder of _why_ was not reassuring in any form. Flowey's reason, however, threatened to pull the stitches in your side. "Fish face didn't want to pick me up after I insulted her, that stuttering lizard was too afraid to pick me up, that coward. Trashbag still refuses to stop threatening to _yeet_ me out the window, and Papyrus was rushed out before I could say anything!"

In your effort to suppress your laughter, fully knowing your sides literally wouldn't be able to handle it, you remarked, "Papyrus was the only one you didn't give a horrible nickname to." Of all the things you could've talked about, you should've realised that that would not make your situation any better.

He shrunk in on himself. "It's hard to hate the guy, okay? He doesn't deserve it." You could agree with Flowey on that, though you barely managed to laugh in a way that wouldn't hurt your waist at the face he was making. 

Suddenly, a little growling noise emanated from your stomach. When was the last time you had eaten? 

You looked to Chara and asked, "How long have I been asleep for?"

"Since the surgery last night," they answered immediately. They tapped the 'on' button for your phone. "According to your phone, it's morning." And politely, they turn it back off, not waiting for it to do so itself. 

Recalling your tracklist of food intake, you groaned as you realised that the last time you'd eaten was a full twenty-four hours ago at breakfast, a simple and lazy meal of toasted waffles. Now, you weren't going to make yourself seem like a person who couldn't last without food, because you could for some time if it called for it. Sometimes, it would even be due to... other things. But usually, when there was food available and in such plentiful stock, it was hard to keep your stomach from the varying levels of 'vacuum' to 'black hole.' 

In short, you were starving. And that sweet smell wafting from downstairs, that familiar zing of the spice of cinnamon, wasn't helpi-

Wait.

Cinnamon.

Papyrus doesn't bake. Sans _does,_ but as you clearly remember, he could not master that masterpiece of a recipe and gave up trying. Undyne didn't seem like the type to do any form of food-making (besides her supposed cooking lessons with Papyrus), and you weren't sure of Alphys' capabilities, so disregarding the unknown variables, you could only come to one conclusion.

The strengthening sweet smell of butterscotch and the cinnamon's spice accompanied by the opening door verified it for you.

Goat Mom was here.

"Oh, my child! You are awake!" They rushed to your bedside and swept the slice of pie onto the table beside you. 

You, however, were still in shock. "Mom? W-what are you doing here?"

The look on her face reflected the motherly sternness you didn't even know that you missed. "What else? I am assisting in your recovery." She made a heavy emphasis on this topic by reaching out for the slice of butterscotch-cinnamon pie once more and presented it in your lap. "I was only going to rest this in the room for you to eat at a later time, but seeing as you are awake, presenting this in ways that human royalty received their breakfasts sounds like a merry little way to start a morning." It still took you by surprise at times when you remembered that Toriel was a centuries-year-old monster that had been around likely around the age of King Arthur or before then.

Wait. Does that mean that Merlin was an actual sorcerer, or wizard or whatever he called himself?

You rubbed at your temples at your thoughts and brought yourself back to the original problem - your adoptive mother in the skeleton brothers' house. "You know you didn't have to come here. I told you that over the call." You had called her before Alphys was going to sedate you, yet you had to put in your best efforts to persuade Toriel that coming over to the house was unnecessary.

Unfortunately, nothing seemed to have worked.

She shook her head. "Nonsense. Any good mother would look after their child if they are suffering or are in pain."

That sent a huge pang of pain straight to your heart. The sudden stab of emotion actually punched a breath out of Chara, who flew a few feet back and straight towards the middle of the room in a second. Your two friends scrunched their eyes at you in concern, and you only registered that part of it may have been that you nearly had tears in your eyes. However, for the sake of Toriel, you fought them back. You can't constantly be a weakling. Nevertheless, you didn't trust yourself to open your mouth.

"Here." She handed you the fork and curled your fingers gently around it. Although both of you knew that you were capable of basic muscle movement in your arms, you appreciated the gesture. It made you feel loved. "Although healing magic is still at work on your wounds, some good food should aid in this process. Something tells me that a hearty snack after so long without food shall support your body in healing." You opened your mouth to say something, but your stomach growl beat you to any words of gratitude that you were going to give her. You meekly thanked her during the laughter around you and began taking small pieces of pie into your mouth.

Although you'd only been knocked out for the average amount of sleeping time, a lot had happened. Somehow, Toriel was able to bolt herself across from the Ruins all the way to Snowdin in a matter of minutes after your phone call. When she'd slammed open the front door, Undyne had jumped off the couch and fell smack on her butt before bolting upright when she realised she had been caught off-guard and summoned a spear, yelling and demanding what Toriel was doing there. Alphys, thankfully, had not started the stitches, and the same good luck could be said for the injected sedative as it was strong enough to not startle you back awake just as it had taken full effect.

You had heavily emphasised over your call that you had forgiven Undyne for her actions, and in the midst of the call, said fish monster had even yelled an apology back. That didn't stop Toriel chewing her out nor did it stop Undyne's frightened state at a mother's rage, and through your mom's entire recount, you had to keep patting your stitches to remind you that they were there before you tore them cackling about how Toriel threatened to char Undyne until she was "a smoked salmon."

Between that and a launched pun war in the kitchen waged between Toriel and Sans as she taught Papyrus some of her own recipes (with his screams about "AWFUL AND TERRIBLY OVERUSED PUNS!") and two near house-on-fire incidents involving Undyne's attempts at cooking and Toriel's reignited rage (haha, because fire, get it?), the current monsters in the household were able to amicably get along under one common interest and concern: you.

At the end of her long _tail_ (you should stop hanging around the two pun-lovers should you continue to pun in your thoughts), she hastened to remember a small step that you're normally meant to follow when a patient has woken up. "Oh my. I have forgotten to alert the others about your consciousness. Please excuse me for a moment, my child. Dr. Alphys of all monsters should have been the first to know so she could check on your health." Without another word, Toriel walked over to the door and called out to the waiting monsters in the house. 

You scared yourself for the briefest second when it sounded like a stampede was making its way up the stairs. It took you those next few seconds before further monsters entered that door to process that it was likely the anxious and excited footsteps of Undyne and Papyrus, though mostly the works of the former.

Undyne strode into the room with Alphys under her arm and placed her down with a surprising gentleness before resuming what you assumed to be her regular behaviour. "Sup, punk!"

"YES, 'SUP' INDEED!"

"P-Please be c-c-careful, now." S-She has just w-woken up, a-a-and we can't h-have her heart e-exerting i-itself."

"Oh, my apologies then, Dr. Alphys. I am afraid that I have made her laugh a number of times."

"O-oh! Please d-d-don't worry a-about it, Y-Y-Your H-Highness. I-I sh-should've t-told you b-b-before y-you v-visited her."

"It is quite alright, Dr. Alphys. But please, Toriel is just fine. I am no longer the queen."

"YOU DIDN'T MAKE THE HUMAN LAUGH THROUGH YOUR... SENSE OF HUMOUR, I SHOULD HOPE, YOUR HIGHNESS?"

"I cannot promise that, Papyrus. But please, dear, you may call me Toriel."

As you scanned your eyes amongst the people in the room, you couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment when you noticed that Sans was not part of the crowd.

Wait. Disappointment?

Why?

What was this?

What was this warmth? 

You felt your face heat up in embarrassment, and in the corner of your eye, you watched as Undyne raised an eyebrow at your predicament. It didn't take her long to figure out the reason why as she glanced upon the room herself and a toothy grin crossed her face once she recognised the same thing you did. Needless to say, it did not ease up the flushing of your face.

You calmed down enough when Alphys reached over to undo your bandages. It didn't take that much to say that you were surprised to see that your arms and head were perfectly healed, the judgement of your head coming from a quick scan over with the selfie mode on your phone. "B-b-because your w-waist and thigh w-wound are really d-deep, it'll t-take some time b-before they're a-a-actually healed. It shouldn't t-take as long as it n-normally does with h-humans though, since w-we have healing m-m-magic working on them and all. You sh-should be able to w-walk by t-tomorrow, but w-we have crutches h-here to assist you when t-that comes, so it's n-not advised that you w-walk too much just y-y-yet. A-after that, it'll take a w-week, two at m-most to seal up, then i-it'll take about t-that same time, m-m-maybe more before you're left w-with a faint s-scar."

The simple mention of the word 'scar' was enough for you to try to hide your arms from plain sight. Alphys, however, was more observant than her stuttering nature partially led you to believe, and the quick movement of her eyes towards your arms moved to hide its underside let you know exactly that. "S-speaking of, u-um..." She pushed her glasses a little higher up her snout. "A-as your doctor here, I-I need to be c-concerned about a-any past, um, i-i-injuries that you've had, and, u-uh, y-you have so m-m-many o-o-on your a-arms, and I, um, n-n-need to e-examine them a l-l-little closer and a-ask about t-those." The poor girl was stuttering so hard it was difficult to tell what she was saying at times. Unfortunately, you got the message.

You glanced at your worried friends surrounding your bed, and you yourself had to scrunch your eyebrows. "There's no offence to any of you guys here, but... isn't things concerning the patient meant to be kept private unless the patient agrees to it?" You nodded at your arms as an indication of what you were mentioning, but that didn't stop the worried and downcase eyes of the newer monsters in the room.

Flowey, just as he had with Sans some time ago, came to your side. "Exactly! Why can't you guys just keep your noses to your own business? Sheesh, let her have some of her own privacy, will you?" Alphys turned to the flower shocked, and this making you remember how she responded to Flowey being there last night in the first place made you come to the conclusion that they knew each other somehow. 

"HEY!" Undyne yelled. "DON'T you talk to us like that, ESPECIALLY Alphys. She's the one doing THE MOST out of ALL OF US HERE! While YOU are sitting there little a cute and teensy little flower. If you care so much, then DO SOMETHING! Even Sans is actually helping to make food. And he doesn't do anything!"

You weren't so sure what to say about how warm you felt inside. And not in the regular way when someone does something for you. 

Toriel decided to break the tension by speaking up. "Please do calm yourselves. As Dr. Alphys said, we cannot allow _____'s heart to overdo itself, otherwise, I do not want to imagine what would become of her. And I hardly think that such loud behaviour shall help." Her stink eye she must've directed to Undyne multiple times was back on said fish monster, and a familiar bead of sweat you'd seen on Papyrus trailed down her face as she tried to hide any of her nerves behind a shy smile. "And it is very kind and respectful of you, Flowey, to care for _____ in this way. You are almost siblings in this manner." Flowey, ever the type who is unable to take a compliment, just turned his head to his side and mumbled his natural Flowey things. "But we are very concerned about your health. And in the Underground, where your livelihood is at stake only because you are a human, we worry for you."

From between your lashes, you looked at the faces of the monsters around your bed and found only worry and concern, even in the sheepish shark-toothed Undyne. "Don't you guys... need my soul to break the barrier and all?" you meekly asked. "Since I'm the last one?" You stared at Undyne more so at this last statement, and you could swear that Toriel's eye had twitched and a small flame had threatened to brew in the palm of one hand.

In response to all this tension, she rubbed her head and said, "Well, um, yeah, that's true. But it doesn't have to be your soul! You've got monsters down here that care about you, and I hate to say it, but I've become one of them. DON'T THINK THIS MEANS YOU'VE WON OR ANYTHING!"

Your adoptive mother gave her a threatening glance. "Undyne." 

"Sorry, sorry, I'll try not to yell again. But yeah, um, you've got people who care for you, me included. And I'd be damned if I let anything happen to someone I care about, even if they _are_ a human." She punched her fist into the palm of her other hand. "We'll just wait until a no-good punk falls down instead!" At this, she glanced nervously in the direction of Toriel who had taken upon a rigid 'I-mean-business' stance.

With a sigh, this stance dissipated. "If a human falls into the Ruins that is openly threatening monsters, I shall personally ensure the safety of the monster inhabitants and direct the human a swift and clear path towards the exit of the Ruins. You would receive a call before they emerge into the rest of the Underground." You gave Toriel a tough smile that she returned with her own. 

She wasn't the violent type unless it came to protecting something she deeply cared about and wished to protect. The whole idea that you got by Toriel choosing to flee to the Ruins was that she did not want to be involved both with her husband and the kingdom's advocation for the murder of any human that fell into the Underground. By choosing to do this, she adhered to her morals and reservations as best she could, though you did notice that some of her decisions were held with a sort of pride.

A small silence elapsed before Alphys approached with a meek step and held out her claw-like hands. "May I?" It didn't take much to retreat back to the problem that sparked the debate, so it didn't take much to understand what she was asking. It was so _hard_ to talk about. Asking for the evidence of something you couldn't bear to open your mouth for all while people asking for the answers didn't even know what they were looking for just... You were lost.

But these people wouldn't judge you for it. These _monsters,_ though they couldn't understand, cared for you. And although you didn't want to drag them into your problems that you should be able to solve yourself, you didn't want to keep a secret from them. So, balancing on that shaky line between reluctance and obligation, you smiled. "Okay." And you presented the underside of your arms to the yellow scientist.

You couldn't bear to look at the scars nor the monsters in the room when their reactions came, but their whispers and worried gasps said it all. This is what you didn't want.

"W-what the... There's so many."

_This is what you didn't need._

"T-t-these h-have to be some w-weeks to _y-y-years_ worth!"

You don't need their sympathy. You don't _want_ their sympathy.

"My child, was this why you always insisted on having long-sleeves and jackets?”

Why did you do this to yourself?

"S-stop bombarding her! Isn't it obvious that she's uncomfortable, you idiots?!"

Why were you so pathetic?

Why did you have to act like an attention-seeking brat? You don't... You aren't that... right?

For all you knew, you probably were. A small sigh escaped you. How more horrible could you become? 

You didn't deserve any of this. They didn't deserve to be dragged down with you.

"_____."

Chara was right in your face, and their proximity with a dead-straight expression shocked you back into reality. "Snap out of there. Reeling back into wherever you're going is a bad place. Now, deep breaths." You followed their instructions, and within seconds, you were calm and clear of your spiralling thought wormhole. "Good." This finally brought you back to the expressions of the gathered monsters, and you knew those types of faces all too well. You'd seen it the most on Sans; there was deep worry laced in for your well-being, yet the guilt that lightly clouded their face stood as a result of wanting to pry and know more.

But what do you tell them? None of them knew the implications behind self-harm, and you don't feel ready to explain something like that to such a crowd, especially Papyrus. You know he's not naive, but you couldn't bear the thought of teaching him something like that when you, someone he considered a friend and practically roommate, still lay injured with metal stitches in your thigh and side. Yet at the same time, you didn’t want them to worry. 

You decided to go for a response that met somewhere in the middle. “Please understand that I can’t really talk about this right now. I don't feel ready to explain what this is. Maybe I’ll open up sometime later, but I still find it difficult to talk about.”

You watched as what could be called your official announcement was processed. And soon...

"DO NOT FRET, HUMAN! AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS WITH A VERY NOT-SO-TALKATIVE BROTHER, HAVING PATIENCE IS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT IT SHALL TAKE SOME TIME FOR US TO BE PERMITTED INTO YOUR EXTRA PERSONAL BUBBLE SURROUNDED BY OTHER BUBBLES. BUT I KNOW I'M ON MY WAY THERE!"

"Yeah! We can totally respect whatever secrets you need to keep and stuff. We need to get to the best BEST friend zone to be anywhere near this stuff."

"Everyone follows their own pace, but please do not feel pressured by our curiosities to tell us sooner or at all. We may leave it alone if that is what you prefer."

"A-a-and they're a-already healed a-and n-n-not terribly s-severe t-t-that they s-seem to have negatively a-affected your physical h-health to m-m-my knowledge, s-so we can do w-whatever you feel c-c-comfortable with."

"I'll do you a favour and not say a word about it. It's the least I can do for what you've done for me, separating my past from me. But don't think I'm being nice for doing this! You pull my stuff up, and I'll pull up yours too! Even-steven."

"We're here for you no matter what. We all are."

The general response was very understanding and respectful, and you found yourself wrapped in a large group hug abruptly broken by Undyne carrying you to the downstairs couch and vowing to do so until you fully healed "to make up for me being a jerk to you." Alphys and Toriel approved for the time being so long as she was careful around the stitches. 

A sudden door knock not long after revealed Grillby sporting a classic brown paper bag from his bar sticky at the bottom with grease. He had also decided to visit since he also worried for you after hearing from a troubled regular in the early morning (maybe a small blush crossed your face, maybe not). Luckily, you had picked up enough on his form of speech when he told you that you could take all the time you needed to recover and that you don’t have to rush back to get to work. He even insisted that he would continue to pay you as usual, and no amount of refusals stopped him from keeping to that decision. Sans had even popped by to say hello, and you assumed Grillby wanted to help make you feel better when he gave you a reason to also gang up on Sans about his tab. He had better pay that thing off.

Now, with all these delectable things on the table (and a fairly professional-looking quiche made by Sans if you do say so yourself... maybe), it's natural that any lazy day with the excuse of an injured person is obviously accompanied by the tv. And, per Alphys and Undyne's suggestion, "An anime marathon!" It was the first time you had heard Alphys talk for more than several seconds at a time without a single stutter and on such a passionate tangent at that, although you had to admit, you could relate.

The two had taken to occupying the couch with space for you on the side, both bouncing with an infectious excitement at finally getting to indoctrinate a new person into what you caught on to be Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. Hey, you'd give it a shot - you had all this time after all. And it's the least you could do for such caring friends. Would it be too bold to assume that Alphys was already becoming a friend? They looked awfully close together, though judging by the glances they exchanged a thousand times a second, they were on that teenage crush level that you couldn't help giving Undyne the same teasing look for. Meanwhile, Papyrus had been a hospitable host and offered Toriel one of their chairs, though she had to reassure him once he started busting out the pillows and blankets that her fur would suffice for comfort. Satisfied, he had taken to crossing his legs on the floor with a straight back.

From the place you stood, a smile broke out on your face. "This feels like a home." And you and Chara shared that smile, that smile of understanding. It felt... good.

"it's your home."

That goofy permanent smile greeted you at your right, and no matter if it was fake or not, you couldn't help but smile back. You still could not understand what you were feeling, but just being around him just gave you that feeling, something only enhanced by his lack of presence earlier. "Did you just decide that because I've been here for so long?"

He took a moment. He hummed, his eye sockets closed. And when they opened, they locked onto your eyes so captively that you didn't dare break eye contact. "you make things complete here. feels like you filled a hole we didn't know we were missing. without you, i don't think this place would be the same. now, i dunno about you, cuz i'm not a mind reader. but if you ask me, it feels like you belong here."

"Really?" You must look creepy, smiling while you ask something to such a serious statement. God, you must look horrible after missing a shower. Was your hair neat? It looked like a bird's nest, didn't it? You must look like an absolute creep.

When did you get so self-conscious about your appearance?

He smiled back. "really." Staring into his eye sockets felt just like _that_ time. And now that you were well, it sent shivers tingling down your spine, and you had to repress the urge to shudder. 

He nudged towards the now impatient living room. "c'mon. i'm curious to see what's got alph so excited that she could write a speech and essay in one go." It took a couple of strides of the room until he plopped down right next to Papyrus and closed his eyes.

You giggled under your breath at this sight. That silly skeleton.

You made your way over to your reserved spot next to Undyne on the couch and made some rather suggestive eyebrow wriggles when you saw her wrap her arm behind Alphys' head once the latter had pressed play. All she did was give you a big grin, perhaps afraid to penetrate the marathon atmosphere with an outside voice, and you felt like things were going to be okay.

Next to your feet, you observed as the moving and flashing colours on the screen painted a gorgeous cacophony of colours across Sans' skull. _Oh my god, what are you doing, why are you staring, you're meant to be watching the tv, yeah, eyes on the tv, not this bag of bones. But he does look kind of cute sleeping--NO!_

Between your thoughts, Sans had opened an eye socket, and from the corner of your eye, you saw him wink in your direction before dropping them back shut. This time, you felt your heart thump distinctly louder than it has before. And as it repeated these beats a few more times, you finally registered a warm feeling developing in the middle of your chest. The very place where your soul was carefully nestled away. At last, a name.

You could never recall liking anyone throughout your entire life. The simple word 'love' was out of the question if you could go nowhere near liking anyone. It was natural that you had developed those celebrity crushes, and on occasion, those weird crushes you end up having on fictional and often animated characters in films and tv shows. No one seemed to click for you or draw you in a way that ever led to beyond being friends, and you were too reclusive, bent on learning or absorbed in your fantasy worlds to even consider that you might have more-than-friend feelings for another human being. 

And there, _there,_ your mind said, was the key phrase in your thinking. 'Another human being.' Because it was right, wasn't it? Because you weren't in a situation involving another human being. No. You were in a situation brought out of your reclusiveness, out of the stress of the learning world and projected straight into a world that could very nearly be a product of your fantasies. A teasing eyebrow wiggle from Chara and the disgusted grunt of realisation from Flowey confirmed it, and the blush on your cheeks darkened. Because you, all variables considered, had developed a classic teenager's crush on the pun-loving skeleton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know you've heard abt ppl listening to music while they write fanfics, but have you ever heard of someone rewatching Jacksepticeye's first playthrough of Phasmophobia with Mark, Bob and Wade for about the 5th time while doing that same thing? It's really funny when they keep saying, "Bone," and "Nice bone shot" while we're in a fanfic about wanting to smooch a skeleton XD
> 
> This is the last chapter where they stay in bed for too long, promise! 
> 
> I'll change the update schedule back to every week once I've got all the chapters written out or the last chapter is just about to be started.


	11. The Dam is Broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooo yeah, this is a week late. I'm sorryyyyyyy!!!! I've had a bit of writer's block, a little due to having to balance the fic with a really heavy homework load.
> 
> BUT!
> 
> My inspiration got back to me, and I had the time to do this chapter. It's a little shorter than some, and that's due to the writer's block and to get in control of how much I'm writing. If I keep challenging myself to write longer chapters than before, I'll be pressuring myself to do too much, so hopefully this is alright! And, thankfully, the ending to this chapter was enough for me to continue the next one. I hope you enjoy, and to make up for it, I'll post the next chapter next week. 
> 
> Anyway, please enjoy!
> 
> Here's my [tumblr](https://that-obsessed-fangirl.tumblr.com/) for stuff.

"I still feel really guilty that I'm the only one eating."

"For the last time, it is quite alright, my child. We have already eaten, and after all, you are the only one who _can_ eat it. We dare not eat such solid human foods just yet. We must progress softly."

"I mean absolutely no offence, mom, but it doesn't help that you're all staring at me doing nothing while I'm eating."

It was lunchtime a few days after you'd been healed, and Alphys had recently seen a decline in your health that even healing magic couldn't help. Her hypothesis was that your body was beginning to run low of the nutrients that human food consisted of that allowed your very physical being to survive, nutrients that did not exist in monster food and could not be substituted by any of its properties. Naturally, to test her hypothesis, she and some of your monster friends had left to find any surviving seeds of human crops and, if they were lucky, any human crops that had managed to grow or adapt to the lack of surface environment. 

With how much had managed to flow down from the surface, it wasn't surprising that the monsters were able to return with seeds that they could sense no magic from. Out of all of them, with all but tomatoes and strawberries still in rather untouched packets, you could all only hope that when they were planted around the Ruin's entrance of the Underground, the seeds were still alive and grew something you knew what to do with.

So it shouldn't have been surprising to you that with Toriel's magical guidance, she had grown the crops to full within a few days at the same time that Alphys had created a machine to process some of the surprising wheat crops into flour. With some hindsight, she had also constructed a toilet that she swiftly added into the structure of the house.

To try and get as many human foods into your system as possible, Alphys had approved the strawberry pie that Toriel had made for your lunch. It was a question that you posed when you were planting these foods after finding out that only you would be eating these human foods that you found interesting.

"Monsters used to live alongside humans, so that obviously means that you had some sort of digestive system. It was inevitable that you'd come across human food, and that has to be digested. Mom, you were around at that time, so you should've had some form of digestion for human food. Why don't monsters have that anymore?"

"W-well, it's a s-simple matter of e-evolution," Alphys answered. "With n-no human foods brought down i-into the Underground, m-monsters no longer had a source of human food. Since our o-only source of food was magic, our b-bodies slowly began to realise th-that a digestive sytem was u-unnecessary and slowly began d-disposing of it by c-converting it into m-magic, bit by b-bit. Children w-were soon born w-without any digestive systems, a-and since it was n-never taught due to b-being completely unnecessary, y-you'd have to a-actively search for this i-information I have a th-theory that motivation f-for this disposal w-was because m-magic was being u-used so often to b-build a society here. We w-wouldn't have used so much magic i-in the war s-since we never t-t-took any lives. Heh, no offence."

"None-taken.

"So, s-s-soon enough, monsters w-were being born w-without d-digestive systems, and a-after that, v-very few monsters e-even knew that h-human food acted d-differently and n-needed a process c-called 'digesting.' The o-only exceptions were s-skeletons like Sans and P-Papyrus and gh-ghosts who couldn't d-develop any sort of ph-physical system whatsoever."

"Would that explain why that book in the library said that monsters were 'mostly made of magic'? Because they had that physical digestive system still in there?"

"P-precisely. T-those are out-of-date, though, they r-really need updating."

To your further surprise, Flowey had offered to input his knowledge. You had to reassure Alphys that Flowey was working on being nice, or at least not cruel and acting like a sociopath and that he genuinely wouldn't bring her any harm. "And besides, he'd do anything to get out of his pot and feel smart."

"Who said you could speak for me?!"

"Oh, please. You enjoy power. Having informational power is your best compromise between feeling powerful and not trying to hurt people. And in the end, you'll be helping monsterkind and be highly regarded and recognised for your contributions. Am I wrong?"

The lack of response ended that conversation.

So there you were, eating a slice of strawberry pie, while everyone (besides Undyne and Alphys) observed you having eaten their own food already and tried to make sense of how it worked. Except for Toriel. She was watching you just to make sure you ate to the very end. 

"YOU AND YOUR FOODS ARE VERY FUNNY, HUMAN. ARE YOU SURE YOUR FOOD DOESN'T DO ANY DISSOLVING IN YOUR MOUTH? PLEASE LET ME SEE!"

"i think that's considered a little rude, bro."

"OH. MY APOLOGIES, HUMAN! I DID NOT MEAN TO BE SO RUDE AND INVASIVE."

You waved it off. "It's alright, Paps." You couldn't really get mad at him, even if you tried. 

Flowey, who was situated right in front of your plate, held the same face of curiosity that you saw on Sans' face, though Sans was more concealed. And then you thought about it. Flowey said that he was "neither human nor monster" but a plant. So could plants potentially eat human food? Deciding that it couldn't hurt to try, you cut off a really small piece off of your slice, somewhere around as big as your eye, and held it to Flowey's mouth. "You think you might be able to try it?"

He gave you his usual snide face. "What makes you think I _can?"_

"You're a plant," you answered immediately. "Plants can take in some physical things, though a little slower than humans. Maybe since you're a special case, you can probably eat human foods in a normal way." You pressed him again by nudging your fork closer to his mouth. All he did was stare at it, no doubt questioning the pros and cons of doing this little experiment. In the end, he too decided that this couldn't hurt and scooped up the bite in his little mouth.

He chewed over it for a moment, and it was quiet seldom for his chewing. He took one big gulp, and it was for some seconds that he stood shock still. Without his face, he would've looked like a normal flower. "Huh," he finally said. "I guess you were right. Thanks."

"No problem." You smiled as you continued to eat, and Toriel, endeared at your exchange seemingly having missed such a similar scene in her own home, had proceeded to grab another plate, a knife and fork, and placed in front of Flowey a slice of his own. At some point, Papyrus had bolted upright and claimed that he had to dash off, saying he would recalibrate his puzzles with twice the effort since you were not in a fit state to be doing so. You all waved him out, and so you were left with Sans, Toriel, and your flower and ghostly friend at the table. 

A furry paw had placed itself on your shoulder, and you turned to Toriel in the middle of one of your last bites. "It warms my heart that you and Flowey have continued looking out for one another. I could laugh now at how worried I was when you left the Ruins seeing as you have made it this far with your kindness and such amazing friends."

"i'm flattered, tori."

You raised an eyebrow. "You're not mad that I nearly died anymore?"

"I may still hold a... slight grudge against the captain." Her eyes glinted a stern light, like the fire of her magic dared to ignite in her crimson red eyes. "Her first impression had been made long before I met her. However, her obvious guilt and apology has made it clear to me that she holds regret for her actions and has taken action to make amends. Therefore, I cannot continue to hold it against her."

You smiled, content as you continued eating your pie, glad that Toriel hadn't allowed herself to maintain this resentment.

Yet the thought of maintaining resentment made you realise that there was still one person she'd yet to forgive. One monster that she had held a hatred against longer than any living being possibly could. With a new resolve and stoic expression that caught Sans' attention, you put your fork back down. "Mom?"

You couldn't see what Toriel's face was at that moment, but you could only guess that she was smiling based on her tone. "Yes, my child?" You could hear the nervousness in her voice. She could tell what was coming.

"What about Asgore?"

A choking tension flooded the atmosphere, and Chara, who had not been watching or listening in, jerked their head in your direction. Sans stared at you as if you had once again proposed that you would give up your soul for the barrier, Flowey grimaced, and Chara continued to stare at you in this way that made you wonder if they were telling you to back off now or just thought of you as crazy. Maybe both.

You finally swivelled around in your chair to see Toriel averting her eyes to anywhere but your own. It was as if she was trying to look for an escape. You've seen that look on Sans before. "W-whatever do you mean? What train of thought has brought... _him_ to your mind?" Just to busy herself, she leant down to the table and picked up Flowey's empty plate and cutlery and climbed up your stool-ladder to reach the sink. 

A sliding noise from your peripheral gave you the indication that Sans had slid out of his seat, though you made no motion. "i'll give you two some privacy." He gave an eye to Flowey. "want me to pick you up, bud?"

Flowey huffed. "She's here, so I'm staying." You would've voiced your thanks, but it simply felt like the wrong moment. Instead, you gave Flowey a look, and the intent must've been clear to him because he gave you a nod in the middle of rolling his eyes.

Sans shrugged. "if you say so." He trailed your eyes to you, then over both your shoulders, no doubt searching for Chara even though he couldn't see them. Content that nothing could change either way, he let out a resigned sigh.

And with that last move, he popped out. 

You snapped your mind's attention from the (handsome) skeleton _('irrelevant, irrelevant, mind, STOP')_ just before Toriel descended from the chair. It would be awkward if she caught you blushing and gave her a switch in conversation. "You've forgiven Undyne for nearly trying to kill me, but you still hold hard feelings towards Asgore." This time, you shuffled your whole chair around. "I haven't personally met him yet, and yes, his actions were horrible, but holding a grudge for such a long time and not giving him proper closure, forgiveness or not, is not healthy for the both of you." You're not entirely sure you'd completely forgive Asgore yourself if you were in Toriel's position, but you'd long established that there seemed to be no other choice.

It took some time, but Toriel had recovered from her initial shock and put on her mother face. "Please do not think to compare your circumstances. Undyne has expressed guilt for her actions, has learnt from them and is choosing to make up for what she has done. Asgore has killed six human children in vengeance and with no mercy, and he will intend to take your own should your existence become known to him."

You held up your hands, standing up in one swift motion. "What else was he supposed to do? If human mages created this barrier in this way, they must've known the cost it would've taken to break it." In your side, you could see a sort of enlightened face on Flowey. Perhaps he had never thought of it that way. Chara, too, shared the same face for a moment. But once that idea came to mind, their expression changed to disgust.

"He could have made it simpler!" Toriel burst out. Your eyes widened at the sudden volume of her voice. You had never heard her yell in anger before. "He could have taken one soul, perhaps the soul of an ill-meaning human, and crossed the barrier to retrieve the remaining six needed. But instead, he has chosen to hide down here, like a coward."

A deep breath, and you shook your head, your hands clasped onto its sides just to contain your anger. Had she not considered any other perspective? Was she that wracked with grief and a firm grudge that she refused to shake her old beliefs? "That would've made things worse! He still would've had to kill, and humans would've been ready to kill him and any emerging monsters at a moment's notice."

Her fists were clenched, and she had taken to pressing one step closer. "He would not have had to kill. Why not take the souls of those who have passed due to the natural course of life? Many humans did so before, so he would not have needed to mercilessly end the lives of innocents with a future lying in front of them." 

"That would've still ended in war! Any of the humans before my time would've instantly attacked anything they were afraid of or were completely unknown to them. Asgore would have lost his life, and the kingdom would be in disarray. And if monsters ever emerged from the mountain again? There's no more mages for another barrier. Forget being trapped, you'd all be extinct!" The monster population may have grown considerably since the war hundreds of years ago, but a big population never stopped humans from mass slaughter. 

Instead of continuing to elevate the frustration and anger, Toriel donned a steely front. "If mages truly no longer exist, then what more can humans do? How could you possibly say that humans can be more merciless, cold-hearted and dreadful than they were before?" 

"Because I'm one of them!" Toriel flinched at the vehemence in which you yelled this statement. You could no longer see Flowey, for your peripheral version felt blurred, but a pang of empathy entered your soul, and you could feel it. The same disgust that you carried for the human race, but the disgust carried by oneself because you _are_ one. "Because I've had to learn and watch and see every cruel thing we have ever done, monsters unaccounted. Humans have been going to war with each other for centuries, thousands have suffered and died under one leader just because they want everything to themselves, and millions of humans have been tortured, slaughtered, gunned, gassed and degraded like an animal just because they were different! We can't stop hating one another and pulling something at each other's throats. What's going to stop them from seeing and treating monsters the same?"

An uncomfortable atmosphere filled the air, so alike to the choking tension yet not, the choking turned more fiercly into a stabbing in your heart and the twisting of a knife in your guts. It was a dam with a spider-web of cracks and dripping leaks just begging to be burst. And Toriel was the one to prod the centre. "You are here. If humans are truly as bad as you say, then surely they will understand that if you stand in support of monsters, they will choose to follow in your footsteps." You would snort at the thought if everything wasn't so serious. You, an emotionally unstable girl who just emerged from adolescence and ran away from home? That'll go over well.

Again, you shook your head. "It isn't that easy. And besides, what could I do?" Your mind raced, and you could sense where your mind was going. But you couldn't stop it. Your emotions were that dam, and now your mouth couldn't be stopped. Nothing Chara tried to do would've worked. How could it when they too reflected you like a near mirror? "I don't have magic like any of you. I'm not anything special. I don't even deserve to have such a nice family like all of you." Unwillingly, tears began to drip down your face and steadily formed a path for the rest. "I can't do anything right, I c-can't even look after myself. I'm worthless, I'm just like them, I'm a horrible person--"

"My child--"

"I SHOULD'VE DIED WHEN I FELL DOWN THAT HOLE!"

Toriel could only stand in shock as you crouched down and cried to yourself, unable to move yourself away in fear of your shaking legs collapsing. Your waist and your thigh hurts, but you don't care, it's fine, it's alright, the pain feels like blissful relief compared to the aching in your mind, your soul. That's why you started cutting, wasn't it? That's why you have those ugly lines across your wrist, the same ones you fought so hard to hide because everyone would see how broken and pathetic you are. But that wasn't enough, was it? All the people you loved had to find out, and now it was more evident than ever: you could not be SAVED. You were not worth saving, you were the same human scum that trapped them down here.

Because you were. You didn't have the guts to give up your own soul and grant them their freedom, instead, your keeping it to yourself, staying in this fantasy-land so you could escape your own hell up above. You didn't deserve to have that, maybe you should walk up to Asgore yourself, maybe you should--

Two hands were hesitantly placed on your back. But something confused you. While one was soft and feather-like against your clothed skin, the other was colder, tougher, with gaps in between the phalanges.

When did Sans get here?

"I will not pretend to understand whatever it is you have gone through to say such things, my child." Another soft hand reached out for your own right, and you started hyperventilating again. "But if there is one thing you have since taught me with your kindness and your cheer, it is that no burden nor problem should be carried alone."

"i won't ask either, kid." His hand moved to grip onto your shoulder and gave some comforting rubs. "but i know my fair share of hiding a few secrets behind a smile and a good laugh. though, i know that you've already picked up on that. you're a smart cookie that way."

You wheezed out your own giggle, your rapid breathing slowing down. Count on him to uplift something serious with a little attempt at laughter. But being the comedian he was, it was working.

A flowerpot suddenly dropped and slid into your tucked knees, and bright yellow flooded your vision. "Okay, I really can't pretend to have much feelings, or any feelings at all, but it sucks seeing you cry so I'm gonna say this." A vine reached up to your face and wiped away your remaining tear. "You were with me at one of the lowest points that I've been in for a while. Now, I'm not a people person. I can fake it, absolutely, but you're the only person besides... _them_ who I felt could actually try to understand me. My point is, you don't have to be alone. You don't have to push people away. And you don't have to spill your life story either. You just have to let other people in a little bit, let them be that shoulder you can cry on. It's what you did for me, right?"

With whatever energy you had left, you nodded. You don't think you did too much, but the way he phrased it made it sound like you did a big thing.

Suddenly, his vines were wrapped around you in a hug, and Toriel and Sans quickly followed his lead. You'd cry tears of joy if you hadn't exhausted your tear bank already. 

This... felt really nice. 

Was this what being comforted when you're sad felt like?

As you opened your eyes from the hug, you watched as Chara floated just in front of the scene, a hint of their own dried tear marks on their translucent face, their eyes glinting with unshed joy and sadness. "You have people who care for you, ______. One's that really show it. Don't give them up." 

As always every time you cried, the next few minutes all blurred together yet went by at a snail's pace at the same time. The most you could remember in those few minutes was Toriel promising to cook up another butterscotch-cinnamon pie, human in its pie crust only, with a promise to talk later while Sans sat you down on the couch and let you relax. Be that person you could lean on.

You had never been so close to Sans, both physically and as friends, a thought that came to you as you curled up on the couch and leaned on Sans, wounds be damned. You were so caught up with Papyrus or Flowey or Chara that you never gave him as much attention. It was honestly a mystery to you how your crush developed. But maybe you're seeing it a little better, a little clearer, which is rather ironic since your mind was still clouded by emotion.

But he likes to see people happy, to make them laugh. He's funny, he's goofy, and the restrained joy he held for science and the stars proved that somewhere deep down, he held a passion for things. And if you looked through his lazy guise, he was an extremely hard-working skeleton who would do anything for those that he loved and cared for. Seeing him now, as he curled an arm around you and stroked your hair, both of you wrapped in a comfortable silence, your heart picked up its beat, and your soul hummed, content.

Would you be reading too far into his behaviour if you were to say that this might be really close for a simple friend? 

"i can hear you thinking in there." Just to accompany this little remark, he rubbed your head, messing up your hair. "but maybe you should give your head a break. thinking takes up more energy than you think."

You don't know where this comes from, but a soft smirk slides across your lips and you retort, "And I'm supposed to believe you know what thinking sounds like with that empty skull of yours?"

A stunned silence was quickly filled by Sans' laughter. His laughter, that sweet baritone laugh, and your body flooded with this unknown feeling, this rush knowing that you were the one to cause that. "i'm hurt. wounded, even. good thing there aren't any _skin on these bones."_

Maybe you needed a laugh, or maybe things were so bad that anything with any sense of humour just made you laugh. But you were there, laughing, and Sans' smile reached his eyes. "you're a good kid. keep that true smile and laugh, _____." Your heart skipped a beat. "the days down here are a little brighter with that joy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter didn't go how I planned it. I was gonna have the discussion so heated and Toriel avoiding everything to the point where she made the excuse of going to get more human food and leaving her there. Then, literally a few minutes later, Asgore would knock on the door and the reader and him would have this discussion that I've already written down. Oh well. Still turned out alright.
> 
> ...
> 
> Did you know that there are male edits of the Frozen songs? Not covers, but pitched down versions of the songs so that they sound like guys? And, you know, basically any Disney princess song?
> 
> They're
> 
> Actually pretty good. As long as you aren't too peeved about pronouns, they are pretty darn good.
> 
> We need Disney Prince movies. Launch that to Disney as an idea. Trust me. If it's money they're looking for, this will rake in money. Imagine all the girls. This. Will. Sell. I dare you to tell me otherwise. Find really good male singers to make this work. Please.


End file.
